Excess mortality in the EU climbed to +16% in July 2022 from +7% in both June and May. This was the highest value on record so far in 2022, amounting to around 53 000 additional deaths in July this year compared with the monthly averages for 2016-2019.
This was an unusually high value for this month. The excess mortality rate was +3% in July 2020 (10 000 excess deaths) and +6% in July 2021 (21 000 excess deaths). Based on the available information, some of the mortality increase in July 2022 compared to the same month of the past two years may be due to the heatwaves that have affected parts of Europe during the reference period.
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.
Excess mortality continued to vary across the EU Member States, with eight Member States recording values above the EU average. The highest rates in July 2022, more than double the EU average, were recorded in Spain (+37%) and Cyprus (+33%). Greece followed with +31%. Meanwhile, only Latvia (-0.5%) registered no excess deaths, staying below the monthly averages for 2016-2019.
Several Member States have recorded an increase in excess mortality rate in July 2022 compared to the previous month, the highest such increases occurred in Greece (+24 percentage points (pp)), Spain (+21 pp) and Italy (+20 pp. The indicator has nevertheless dropped in seven Member States, and the largest decreases compared to June were recorded in Latvia (-7 pp), Estonia (-5 pp) and Lithuania (-4 pp).
The EU registered earlier major peaks in excess deaths in April 2020 (+25%), November 2020 (+40%), April 2021 (+21%) and November 2021 (+27%).
Source dataset: demo_mexrt
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.
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on excess mortality
- Statistics Explained article on weekly deaths
- Dedicated page on population & demography
Methodological notes:
- Excess mortality refers to the number of deaths from all causes measured during a crisis, above what could be observed in ‘normal’ conditions. The excess mortality indicator draws attention to the magnitude of the health crisis by providing a comprehensive comparison of additional deaths amongst European countries and allows for further analysis of the causes.
- Please note that while a substantial increase in excess mortality largely coincides with the COVID-19 outbreak, this indicator does not discriminate among the causes of death and does not identify differences between sex or age.
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