This chart takes a snapshot of the Top 50 countries which currently have the highest cumulative COVID-19 mortality rate since the start of the pandemic. It groups the countries by World Bank income groups and ranks them within each income group by the mortality rate. The comparison of countries among their per capita income peers (as captured by the World Bank income classification) is useful to account for differences in structural features between income groups.
The mortality rate expresses COVID-19 fatalities relative to the size of the population. By relating COVID-19 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 with COVID as the underlying cause.