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 (compared with the average number of deaths between 2016 and 2019), data for 2022 continues to show improvement. Following a stable excess mortality rate at +7% in January and February 2022, the EU excess mortality fell slightly to +6% in March.
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.
Excess mortality continued to vary in all EU Member States with available data. Cyprus (+33%) and Greece (+31%) showed rates above 30%, while Sweden (-5%) and Luxembourg (-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%).
Source dataset: demo_mexrt
How did the situation evolve in your country?
Although excess mortality was observed during most of the past two years across Europe, the peaks and intensity of outbreaks varied greatly across countries. For further analysis, you can read the Statistics Explained article on excess mortality and use the interactive tool by selecting the country you would like to analyse.
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on excess mortality
- Statistics Explained article on weekly deaths
- Dedicated page on population & demography
Methodological notes:
- 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 European countries and allows for further analysis of the 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 identify differences between sex or age.
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