The United States experienced more excess mortality in 2017 than in 2020. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
By comparing death rates in the United States with those of the five largest European countries, demographers found that the United States experienced more excess mortality in 2017 than in 2020, despite the impact of COVID-19.
Sociology professor Samuel Preston and postdoctoral research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Yana Vierboom led the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. According to the study’s abstract, Preston and Vierboom created three indexes to identify how age-specific mortality rates in the United States compared to those of five large European countries since 2000.
The countries studied were Germany, England and Wales, France, Italy, and Spain, whose combined population nears that of the United States, Penn Today reported. From this, they concluded that adverse mortality conditions in the United States led to 400,700 excess deaths and 13 million years of life lost in 2017—three years before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Excess mortality refers to the number of deaths beyond the typical number expected to occur each year.
The CDC reports that approximately 375,000 deaths are related to COVID-19 and 4.41 million years of life were lost due to COVID-19 in the United States in 2020.
The number of excessive deaths and life years lost in 2020 due to COVID-19 were fewer than the total number of excessive deaths and life years lost in 2017 in the U.S. The researchers told Penn Today that these findings do not diminish the losses due to COVID-19, but underscore the daily health hazards that Americans face.
“It is not commonly recognized how far we have fallen behind our European counterparts in mortality and survival,” Preston told Penn Today.
Vierboom told Penn Today that identifying and addressing the factors that contribute to this massive loss of life should be a national priority.
Preston was also part of an October study that found that the COVID-19 death toll is likely much larger than reported, suggesting that the death toll should be inflated by 36%.
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