Top 50: Cumulative deaths by World Bank region

This chart takes a snapshot of the Top 50 countries which currently have the highest cumulative COVID-19 mortality in absolute numbers since the start of the pandemic. It groups the countries by World Bank region and ranks them within each region by the daily absolute mortality toll. 

The absolute expression of the cumulative mortality toll is useful to highlight the the contribution of countries or groups of countries to the global total. Mortality rates, which express the absolute toll relative to population size, provide an indication of performance controlling for population size. The absolute numbers however take the view that a life lost is a life lost, no matter where the person happened to live. It offers a valuable perspective on the absolute scale of the pandemic’s death toll.