Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in over 160 countries relative to their population, Belgium had the most losses to COVID-19 up until April 28, 2020. As of the same date, the virus had infected over three million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 211,000.
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. 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, 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”. 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, Spain 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.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths worldwide per one million population as of April 28, 2020, by country
Based on 2018 population figures; This table shows worldwide countries with a population of one million or more. 28 countries with a smaller population can be found under the "Details" tab.
Supplementary notes
The numbers shown here are not an automated update but a manual one. Numbers can change fast, sometimes within minutes, after they show on this platform. It's Statista's policy to update these numbers at least once per day, but we strive to do this more frequently than that. This includes updates on Saturday and Sunday. Delays are, however, possible.
For this statistic, numbers reported by Johns Hopkins University have been compared with the latest available population numbers. The population numbers in the table are rough indicates, the calculation used more precise numbers. Spain's population, for example, is 46.72 in the table but was 46.723749 in the calculation. Hence that the "deaths per million" might differ.
The source originally put numbers together for some countries and their affiliates. Denmark included, for example, numbers for Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, whereas the Netherlands included numbers for Curacao, Aruba and the Dutch part of Saint Martin. The United States had a similar issue with Guam and Puerto Rico. To avoid confusion, these numbers have been separated: the numbers for the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Denmark only concern the "main" country. The number for the United States only concerns the 50 states.
For consistency, countries with a smaller population (and a potentially much higher impact of coronavirus deaths) were not included in the table. These countries were as follows:
San Marino, 41 deaths, roughly 1,214 per million;
Andorra, 40 deaths, 519 per million;
Sint Maarten (Dutch part), 13 deaths, 320 per million;
Isle of Man, 20 deaths, 238 per million;
Channel Islands, 35 deaths, 205 per million;
Luxembourg, 88 deaths, 145 per million;
Monaco, 4 deaths, 103 per million;
Bermuda, 6 deaths, 94 per million;
St Martin (French part), 3 deaths, 81 per million;
British Virgin Islands, 1 death, 34 per million;
Antigua and Barbuda, 3 deaths, 31 per million;
Guam, 5 deaths, 30 per million;
The Bahamas, 11 deaths, 29 per million;
Iceland, 10 deaths, 28 per million;
Turks and Caicos Islands, 1 death, 27 per million;
Liechtenstein, 1 death, 26 per million;
Barbados, 6 deaths, 21 per million;
Aruba, 2 deaths, 18 per million;
Cayman Islands, 1 death, 16 per million;
Montenegro, 7 deaths, 11 per million;
Guyana, 8 deaths, 10 per million;
Malta, 4 deaths, 8 per million;
Curacao, 1 death, 6 per million;
Belize, 2 deaths, 5 per million;
Brunei, 1 death, 2 per million;
Djibouti, 2 deaths, 2 per million;
Cabo Verde, 1 death, 2 per million;
Suriname, 1 death, 2 per million;
For some countries no calculation could be done. These were Burma (5 deaths), French Guiana (1 death), Guadeloupe (12 deaths), Mayotte (4 deaths), Montserrat (1 death) and Taiwan (6 deaths).
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Johns Hopkins University, & World Bank. (April 28, 2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths worldwide per one million population as of April 28, 2020, by country [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Johns Hopkins University, und World Bank. "Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths worldwide per one million population as of April 28, 2020, by country." Chart. April 28, 2020. Statista. Accessed April 28, 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Johns Hopkins University, World Bank. (2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths worldwide per one million population as of April 28, 2020, by country. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: April 28, 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Johns Hopkins University, and World Bank. "Coronavirus (Covid-19) Deaths Worldwide per One Million Population as of April 28, 2020, by Country." Statista, Statista Inc., 28 Apr 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Johns Hopkins University & World Bank, Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths worldwide per one million population as of April 28, 2020, by country Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/ (last visited April 28, 2020)
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