Excess mortality rose sharply to 19% in December 2022

Excess mortality in the EU in December 2022 soared to +19% of the average number of deaths for the same period in 2016-2019, the highest recorded value in 2022. This is a sharp increase from November, when excess mortality was at +8%. In comparison, the excess mortality rate was +30% in December 2020 and +24% in December 2021. This information comes from data on excess mortality published by Eurostat today, based on a weekly deaths data collection. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained articles on excess mortality and weekly deaths. Source dataset: demo_mexrt In December 2022, excess mortality continued to vary across the EU members. Romania and Bulgaria (both -6%) recorded values lower than the national monthly average for 2016-19, while Hungary (+3%), Luxembourg, Spain and Malta (all +10%) had excess mortality rates less than half the EU average. Conversely, the highest rate was recorded in Germany (+37%). Other countries with rates over +20% were Austria (+27%), Slovenia (+26 %), Ireland and France (both +25%), Czechia, the Netherlands and Estonia (all +23 %), Denmark (+22%), and Finland and Lithuania (both +21%). The EU registered earlier major peaks in excess deaths in April 2020 (+25%), November 2020 (+40%), April 2021 (+21%) and November 2021 (+27%). July 2022 also showed significantly higher than the baseline mortality, possibly due to the heatwaves that affected parts of Europe during the reference period. How did the situation evolve in your country? Although excess mortality was observed during most of the past two years across Europe, the peaks and intensity of outbreaks varied greatly between countries. For further analysis, you can read the Statistics Explained article on excess mortality and use the interactive tool by selecting the country you would like to analyse.