Excess mortality during pandemic yeas was high among CEE countries

• On behalf of Svenska Dagbladet, Statistics Sweden calculated excess mortality during the COVID-19 years 2020-2022 in the EU countries and the EEA countries of Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

• This Indicator refers to the number of deaths from all causes measured during a pandemic above what could be observed under 'normal' conditions from previous years (2017-2019). Even though excess mortality has its limitations (missing age distribution, other disasters and their death toll), it trully highlights the magnitude of the COVID-19 as it also includes indirect impacts, such as disruption to healthcare services .

• As shown in this graph, countries in Europe were not affected in the same way by the COVID-19. The highest excess mortality (in percentage) was recorded in Bulgaria (19.8%), Slovakia (18.7%) and Poland (17.7%) – all from the CEE region. On the other hand, all Nordic states were able to keep the mortality under 10%. There are many factors at play to explain the huge differences and further analysis is needed.

• For more information about excess mortality in Europe see also Eurostat data with great detail available: https://ec.europa.eu/.../statistics-explained/index.php...