In the first two months of 2021, excess mortality in the EU started to fall back: +17% in January and +5% in February after as much as +40% in November 2020 (compared with the averages of the same months in 2016 – 2019). However, it increased again in March (+10%) and April 2021 (+21%), with national rates ranging from -6% in Portugal and -5% in Sweden to +66% in Poland and +76% in Bulgaria.
This information comes from data on excess mortality published by Eurostat today, now available for all EU Member States, 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.
Between January 2020 and April 2021, the EU experienced two complete cycles of excess mortality: the first between March and May 2020 (with a peak of +25% in April) and the second between August 2020 and April 2021 (with a peak of +40% in November).
Source data: demo_mexrt
How did the situation evolve in your country?
Although excess mortality was observed during most of the last year 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
- 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.
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