COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths

Using official COVID-19 death counts for 64 countries and excess death estimates for 41 countries, this paper finds a higher share of pandemic-related deaths in 2020 were at younger ages in middle-income countries compared to high-income countries....

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Main Authors: Demombynes, Gabriel, de Walque, Damien, Gubbins, Paul, Urdinola, Beatriz Piedad, Veillard, Jeremy
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/718461634217653573/COVID-19-Age-Mortality-Curves-for-2020-Are-Flatter-in-Developing-Countries-Using-Both-Official-Death-Counts-and-Excess-Deaths
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36425
id okr-10986-36425
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-364252021-10-29T05:10:45Z COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths Demombynes, Gabriel de Walque, Damien Gubbins, Paul Urdinola, Beatriz Piedad Veillard, Jeremy CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT EXCESS MORTALITY Using official COVID-19 death counts for 64 countries and excess death estimates for 41 countries, this paper finds a higher share of pandemic-related deaths in 2020 were at younger ages in middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. People under age 65 constituted on average (1) 11 percent of both official deaths and excess deaths in high-income countries, (2) 40 percent of official deaths and 37 percent of excess deaths in upper-middle-income countries, and (3) 54 percent of official deaths in lower-middle-income countries. These contrasting profiles are due only in part to differences in population age structure. Both COVID-19 and excess death age-mortality curves are flatter in countries with lower incomes. This is a result of some combination of variation in age patterns of infection rates and infection fatality rates. In countries with very low death rates, excess mortality is substantially negative at older ages, suggesting that pandemic-related precautions have lowered non-COVID-19 deaths. Additionally, the United States has a younger distribution of deaths than countries with similar levels of income. 2021-10-28T13:38:56Z 2021-10-28T13:38:56Z 2021-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/718461634217653573/COVID-19-Age-Mortality-Curves-for-2020-Are-Flatter-in-Developing-Countries-Using-Both-Official-Death-Counts-and-Excess-Deaths http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36425 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
EXCESS MORTALITY
spellingShingle CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
EXCESS MORTALITY
Demombynes, Gabriel
de Walque, Damien
Gubbins, Paul
Urdinola, Beatriz Piedad
Veillard, Jeremy
COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths
description Using official COVID-19 death counts for 64 countries and excess death estimates for 41 countries, this paper finds a higher share of pandemic-related deaths in 2020 were at younger ages in middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. People under age 65 constituted on average (1) 11 percent of both official deaths and excess deaths in high-income countries, (2) 40 percent of official deaths and 37 percent of excess deaths in upper-middle-income countries, and (3) 54 percent of official deaths in lower-middle-income countries. These contrasting profiles are due only in part to differences in population age structure. Both COVID-19 and excess death age-mortality curves are flatter in countries with lower incomes. This is a result of some combination of variation in age patterns of infection rates and infection fatality rates. In countries with very low death rates, excess mortality is substantially negative at older ages, suggesting that pandemic-related precautions have lowered non-COVID-19 deaths. Additionally, the United States has a younger distribution of deaths than countries with similar levels of income.
format Working Paper
author Demombynes, Gabriel
de Walque, Damien
Gubbins, Paul
Urdinola, Beatriz Piedad
Veillard, Jeremy
author_facet Demombynes, Gabriel
de Walque, Damien
Gubbins, Paul
Urdinola, Beatriz Piedad
Veillard, Jeremy
author_sort Demombynes, Gabriel
title COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths
title_short COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths
title_full COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths
title_fullStr COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 Age-Mortality Curves for 2020 Are Flatter in Developing Countries Using Both Official Death Counts and Excess Deaths
title_sort covid-19 age-mortality curves for 2020 are flatter in developing countries using both official death counts and excess deaths
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/718461634217653573/COVID-19-Age-Mortality-Curves-for-2020-Are-Flatter-in-Developing-Countries-Using-Both-Official-Death-Counts-and-Excess-Deaths
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36425
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