Top 50: Daily cases by income

This chart takes a snapshot of the Top 50 countries which currently have the highest daily COVID-19 case toll in absolute numbers. It groups the countries by World Bank income group and ranks them within each group by the daily absolute case tally. 

The absolute expression of cases is useful to highlight the the contribution of countries or groups of countries to the global total. In contrast, case rates, which express the absolute number of cases relative to population size, provide an indication of performance controlling for population size. 

To remove intra-week volatility in the reported data, the indicator is transformed into a 7-day trailing average (the average value of the latest observation and the preceding 6 days). 

Finally, it should be noted that limitations to testing will mean that the number of confirmed cases is lower than the true number of infections.