After the fourth wave of excess mortality in the autumn of 2021, which saw excess mortality in the EU peak in November at +26%, and in the Czech Republic at +43%, 2022 is seeing a clear decline. In January 2022, the EU excess mortality rate remained stable at +7%, and +4% in the Czech Republic. Photo credit: Freepik
Czech Republic, 22 April (BD) – Following the fourth wave of excess mortality in 2021, when the EU’s excess mortality rate reached a new high of 26% in November, and as high as 43% in the Czech Republic, 2022 is showing a clear decline. According to Eurostat, the excess mortality rate for the EU remained at +7% in January 2022. For the Czech Republic, it was +4%.
The excess mortality rate is a statistical measure of how many deaths were recorded in a given area during a given period, compared to the expected baseline average over the same period in previous years. It is used to estimate the number of victims of a high mortality event such as a pandemic, which may not have been recorded in official figures.
Excess mortality continued to vary between Member States with available data. Bulgaria (+44%), Romania (+28%), Greece (+25%), Cyprus (+23%) and Croatia (+22%) continued to show rates above 20%, while Germany, the Netherlands (both -2%) and Belgium (-0.3%) registered mortality below the baseline.
The EU registered previous peaks in excess deaths in April 2020 (+25%), November 2020 (+40%) and April 2021 (+21%). For the Czech Republic, much higher peaks were registered in November 2020 (+75%), January 2021 (+54%) and March 2021 (+62%).
