After the fourth wave of excess mortality in the autumn of 2021, when excess mortality in the EU reached a new peak of +26 % in November and +23 % in December, 2022 started with a clear decrease. In January 2022, the EU excess mortality rate fell to 8 %.
Compared with December 2021, excess mortality decreased in all Member States with available data, although the situation continued to vary. Cyprus (+26 %), Greece (+25 %), Bulgaria (+24 %) and Poland (+23 %) continued to show rates above 20 %, while Portugal (-5 %), Ireland (-4 %), Belgium and the Netherlands (both -1 %) registered mortality below the baseline.
The EU registered previous peaks in excessive deaths in April 2020 (+25 %), November 2020 (+40 %) and April 2021 (21 %).
This information comes from data on excess mortality published by Eurostat today, based on a weekly deaths data collection. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained articles on excess mortality and weekly deaths.
For more information:
- Eurostat Statistics Explained article on excess mortality
- Eurostat Statistics Explained article on weekly deaths
- Eurostat dedicated page on population & demography
- Excess mortality refers to the number of deaths from all causes measured during a crisis, above what could be observed in ‘normal’ conditions. The excess mortality indicator draws attention to the magnitude of the health crisis by providing a comprehensive comparison of additional deaths amongst the European countries and allows for further analysis of its causes.
- Please note that while a substantial increase in excess mortality largely coincides with the COVID-19 outbreak, this indicator does not discriminate among the causes of death and does not catch differences across sex or age classes.