TRACKER

Cumulative excess deaths per capita by World Bank region

Updated daily
Cumulative estimated excess deaths per 100,000 people since start of the pandemic

EXPLAINER

This chart shows the evolution over time of the estimated cumulative excess mortality rate across World Bank regions. 

The excess death estimates are the mid-point estimates derived from excess death model of The Economist, which fills data gaps on the basis of a machine-learning algorithm that learns from official excess mortality date, where available, and over 100 other statistical indicators. The indicator is available on a weekly frequency and its values are converted into a smoothed average. For more details on methods and sources, check out the excess mortality entry in the list of background notes below.

The excess mortality rate expresses all-cause excess deaths since the start of the pandemic relative to the size of the population. By relating excess mortality to population size, we get a measure of the burden of disease. In contrast to the absolute mortality toll, the mortality rate provides an indication of the performance of country or group of countries in terms of protecting its population against death in the context of this pandemic.

It should be noted that the different regional groups shown here are of very different population size dimensions. The global population as per the 2021 medium-variant projection of World Population Prospects is 7,866 million people, which is distributed as follows:

  • East Asia & Pacific (EAP): 2,392 million
  • Europe & Central Asia (ECA): 930 million
  • Latin America & Caribbean (LAC): 655 million
  • Middle East & North Africa (MNA): 472 million
  • North America (NAM): 374 million
  • South Asia (SAR): 1,877 million
  • Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): 1,166 million

In light of these differences in population size, absolute mortality numbers will be quite different given the differences in rates.