The World Health Organization’s calculation for excess deaths—that is, the amount of deaths that actually occurred, above the level that “normally” would have been expected from recent years—indicates that around 14.9 million people around the world died as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19 in the period between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021. This is almost three times the official COVID-19 count of 5.4 million deaths.
WHO’s assistant director-general for the Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact Division Samira Asma explained that the total includes “deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 that were reported to WHO, deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 that were not counted or reported … [and] deaths indirectly associated with the pandemic due to the wider impact on health systems and society.” The estimate is also lowered to account for deaths that were likely avoided, for reasons e.g., of fewer fatalities from car wrecks because of lockdowns or travel restrictions.
Of note, 82% of the excess deaths were people above the age of 60, and almost 70% of the excess deaths were concentrated in 10 countries, according to William Msemburi, the technical officer with WHO’s Department of Data and Analytics. Listed alphabetically, they are: Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States.
