The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in the global death rate, but had little to no significant impact on birth rates, causing population growth to dip slightly. On a global level, population growth is determined by the difference between the birth and death rate, and this is known as the rate of natural change - on a national or regional level, population change is also affected by migration. Ongoing trends Since the middle of the 20th century, the global birth rate has been well above the global death rate, however, the gap between these figures has grown closer in recent years. The death rate is projected to overtake the birth rate in the 2080s, which means that the world's population will then go into decline. In the future, death rates will increase due to ageing populations across the world and a plateau in life expectancy. Why does this change? There are many reasons for falling death and birth rates in recent decades. Falling death rates have been driven by a reduction in infant and child mortality, as well as increased life expectancy. Falling birth rates were also driven by the reduction in child mortality, whereby mothers would have fewer children as survival rates rose - other factors include the drop in child marriage, improved contraception access and efficacy, and women choosing to have children later in life.

As of 2022, the countries with the highest death rates worldwide were Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Moldova. In these countries, there were 17 to 21 deaths per 1,000 people. The country with the lowest death rate is Qatar, where there is just one death per 1,000 people. Leading causes of death The leading causes of death worldwide are by far, ischaemic heart disease and stroke, accounting for a combined 27 percent of all deaths in 2019. In that year, there were 8.89 million deaths worldwide from ischaemic heart disease and 6.19 million from stroke. Interestingly, a worldwide survey from that year found that people greatly underestimate the proportion of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease, but overestimate the proportion of deaths caused by suicide, interpersonal violence, and substance use disorders. Death in the United States In 2022, there were around 3.27 million deaths in the United States. The leading causes of death in the United States are currently heart disease and cancer, accounting for a combined 40 percent of all deaths in 2022. Lung and bronchus cancer is the deadliest form of cancer worldwide, as well as in the United States. In the U.S. this form of cancer is predicted to cause around 65,790 deaths among men alone in the year 2024. Prostate cancer is the second-deadliest cancer for men in the U.S. while breast cancer is the second deadliest for women. In 2022, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States was COVID-19. Deaths due to COVID-19 resulted in a significant rise in the total number of deaths in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019.

Death rate, crude (per 1,000 people) in World was reported at 7.5783 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. World - Death rate, crude - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

US: Mortality from CVD, Cancer, Diabetes or CRD between Exact Ages 30 and 70: Female data was reported at 11.800 NA in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 11.600 NA for 2015. US: Mortality from CVD, Cancer, Diabetes or CRD between Exact Ages 30 and 70: Female data is updated yearly, averaging 11.800 NA from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 14.600 NA in 2000 and a record low of 11.600 NA in 2015. US: Mortality from CVD, Cancer, Diabetes or CRD between Exact Ages 30 and 70: Female data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Health Statistics. Mortality from CVD, cancer, diabetes or CRD is the percent of 30-year-old-people who would die before their 70th birthday from any of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease, assuming that s/he would experience current mortality rates at every age and s/he would not die from any other cause of death (e.g., injuries or HIV/AIDS).; ; World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository (http://apps.who.int/ghodata/).; Weighted average;

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 5.000 Ratio in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 5.200 Ratio for 2015. US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 5.700 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2017, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.300 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 5.000 Ratio in 2017. US: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, female is the number of female infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 female live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

World infant mortality rate for 2025 is 24.99, a 2.09% decline from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>World infant mortality rate for 2024 was <strong>25.52</strong>, a <strong>5.83% decline</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>World infant mortality rate for 2023 was <strong>27.10</strong>, a <strong>3.21% decline</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>World infant mortality rate for 2022 was <strong>28.00</strong>, a <strong>0.36% decline</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.

As of May 2, 2023, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had spread to almost every country in the world, and more than 6.86 million people had died after contracting the respiratory virus. Over 1.16 million of these deaths occurred in the United States.

Waves of infections Almost every country and territory worldwide have been affected by the COVID-19 disease. At the end of 2021 the virus was once again circulating at very high rates, even in countries with relatively high vaccination rates such as the United States and Germany. As rates of new infections increased, some countries in Europe, like Germany and Austria, tightened restrictions once again, specifically targeting those who were not yet vaccinated. However, by spring 2022, rates of new infections had decreased in many countries and restrictions were once again lifted.

What are the symptoms of the virus? It can take up to 14 days for symptoms of the illness to start being noticed. The most commonly reported symptoms are a fever and a dry cough, leading to shortness of breath. The early symptoms are similar to other common viruses such as the common cold and flu. These illnesses spread more during cold months, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that temperature impacts the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Medical advice should be sought if you are experiencing any of these symptoms.

Data for deaths by leading cause of death categories are now available in the death profiles dataset for each geographic granularity.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

Cause of death categories for years 1999 and later are based on tenth revision of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes. Comparable categories are provided for years 1979 through 1998 based on ninth revision (ICD-9) codes. For more information on the comparability of cause of death classification between ICD revisions see Comparability of Cause-of-death Between ICD Revisions.

France FR: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data was reported at 8.800 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 8.900 Ratio for 2015. France FR: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 9.500 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.400 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 8.300 Ratio in 2007. France FR: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

TD: Number of Death: Under-5 data was reported at 78,937.000 Person in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 79,161.000 Person for 2022. TD: Number of Death: Under-5 data is updated yearly, averaging 63,829.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2023, with 64 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 84,451.000 Person in 2012 and a record low of 35,846.000 Person in 1960. TD: Number of Death: Under-5 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Chad – Table TD.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Number of children dying before reaching age five.;Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.;Sum;Aggregate data for LIC, UMC, LMC, HIC are computed based on the groupings for the World Bank fiscal year in which the data was released by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

US: Maternal Mortality Ratio: National Estimate: per 100,000 Live Births data was reported at 28.000 Ratio in 2013. This records an increase from the previous number of 13.000 Ratio for 2007. US: Maternal Mortality Ratio: National Estimate: per 100,000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 13.000 Ratio from Dec 1996 (Median) to 2013, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 28.000 Ratio in 2013 and a record low of 7.600 Ratio in 1996. US: Maternal Mortality Ratio: National Estimate: per 100,000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Health Statistics. Maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births.; ; UNICEF, State of the World's Children, Childinfo, and Demographic and Health Surveys.; ;

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for Countries with Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations (SPDYNIMRTINFCS) from 1990 to 2023 about mortality, infant, and rate.

Graph and download economic data for Infant Mortality Rate for the Arab World (SPDYNIMRTINARB) from 1990 to 2023 about Arab World, mortality, infant, and rate.

COVID-19 rate of death, or the known deaths divided by confirmed cases, was over ten percent in Yemen, the only country that has 1,000 or more cases. This according to a calculation that combines coronavirus stats on both deaths and registered cases for 221 different countries. Note that death rates are not the same as the chance of dying from an infection or the number of deaths based on an at-risk population. By April 26, 2022, the virus had infected over 510.2 million people worldwide, and led to a loss of 6.2 million. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. Note that Statista aims to also provide domestic source material for a more complete picture, and not to just look at one particular source. Examples are these statistics on the confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia or the COVID-19 cases in Italy, both of which are from domestic sources. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

A word on the flaws of numbers like this

People are right to ask whether these numbers are at all representative or not for several reasons. First, countries worldwide decide differently on who gets tested for the virus, meaning that comparing case numbers or death rates could to some extent be misleading. Germany, for example, started testing relatively early once the country’s first case was confirmed in Bavaria in January 2020, whereas Italy tests for the coronavirus postmortem. Second, not all people go to see (or can see, due to testing capacity) a doctor when they have mild symptoms. Countries like Norway and the Netherlands, for example, recommend people with non-severe symptoms to just stay at home. This means not all cases are known all the time, which could significantly alter the death rate as it is presented here. Third and finally, numbers like this change very frequently depending on how the pandemic spreads or the national healthcare capacity. It is therefore recommended to look at other (freely accessible) content that dives more into specifics, such as the coronavirus testing capacity in India or the number of hospital beds in the UK. Only with additional pieces of information can you get the full picture, something that this statistic in its current state simply cannot provide.

Laos LA: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data was reported at 6.663 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 6.754 Ratio for 2015. Laos LA: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 14.381 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 20.321 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 6.663 Ratio in 2016. Laos LA: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Laos – Table LA.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

India death rate for 2025 is 7.53, a 0.76% increase from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>India death rate for 2024 was <strong>7.47</strong>, a <strong>0.77% increase</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>India death rate for 2023 was <strong>7.42</strong>, a <strong>0.49% increase</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>India death rate for 2022 was <strong>7.38</strong>, a <strong>0.49% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.

Context

These datasets are from Our World in Data. Their complete COVID-19 dataset is a collection of the COVID-19 data maintained by Our World in Data. It is updated daily and includes data on confirmed cases, deaths, hospitalizations, testing, and vaccinations as well as other variables of potential interest.

Content

Confirmed cases and deaths:

our data comes from the COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). We discuss how and when JHU collects and publishes this data. The cases & deaths dataset is updated daily. Note: the number of cases or deaths reported by any institution—including JHU, the WHO, the ECDC, and others—on a given day does not necessarily represent the actual number on that date. This is because of the long reporting chain that exists between a new case/death and its inclusion in statistics. This also means that negative values in cases and deaths can sometimes appear when a country corrects historical data because it had previously overestimated the number of cases/deaths. Alternatively, large changes can sometimes (although rarely) be made to a country's entire time series if JHU decides (and has access to the necessary data) to correct values retrospectively.

Hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions:

our data comes from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for a select number of European countries; the government of the United Kingdom; the Department of Health & Human Services for the United States; the COVID-19 Tracker for Canada. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide data on hospitalizations for other countries: there is currently no global, aggregated database on COVID-19 hospitalization, and our team at Our World in Data does not have the capacity to build such a dataset.

Testing for COVID-19:

this data is collected by the Our World in Data team from official reports; you can find further details in our post on COVID-19 testing, including our checklist of questions to understand testing data, information on geographical and temporal coverage, and detailed country-by-country source information. The testing dataset is updated around twice a week.

Acknowledgements

Our World in Data GitHub repository for covid-19.

Inspiration

All we love data, cause we love to go inside it and discover the truth that's the main inspiration I have.

Crude death rate in urban areas of Khakassia, Republic of rose by 1.72% from 11.6 deaths per 1,000 people in 2018 to 11.8 deaths per 1,000 people in 2019. Since the 2.50% decline in 2017, crude death rate in urban areas went up by 0.85% in 2019. The number of deaths in a calendar year per 1,000 population.

China death rate for 2025 is 8.17, a 2.15% increase from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>China death rate for 2024 was <strong>8.00</strong>, a <strong>2.21% increase</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>China death rate for 2023 was <strong>7.82</strong>, a <strong>1.82% increase</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>China death rate for 2022 was <strong>7.68</strong>, a <strong>1.87% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.