Six Countries: Three-quarters of the COVID Deaths

April 27, 2020

Carl Heneghan, Marcy C McCall, Tom Jefferson


As of the 26th April, six countries accounted for 155,457 out of 206,008 (75.5%)  COVID-19 deaths.

These countries are  Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US, which make up 7.5% of the global population (approx 569 million people). 

Interactive Map of deaths

It is possible that some deaths occurring during the reported period are still unaccounted for, and that deaths in other countries might rise. In addition, the definition of “COVID deaths” may be different from country to country and during the reporting period.

These six countries, however,  have been disproportionately affected: their combined death rate is 27.3 per 100,000, which is 39 times higher than the rest of the world’s average of 0.7 per 100,000. 

We have documented this so some investigations focus on the factors that predisposed these six countries to such high death rates.

These figures are up to date as of the 26th of April.


See also:

COVID 19 – The Widow of Hampstead Revisited

Effect of Latitude on COVID-19


Marcy C. McCall, BKin, MSc, DPhil, Departmental Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences

Carl Heneghan is Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine and Director of Studies for the Evidence-Based Health Care Programmes. (Full bio and disclosure statement here)

Tom Jefferson is an Epidemiologist. Disclosure statement is here