“In this brief, we review excess death rates in the U.S. and peer countries by age groups to examine how the pandemic has affected excess mortality rate among younger people. We look specifically at the excess deaths that arose in 2020 to examine how the age at death during the pandemic has differed between the U.S. and peer nations. We also estimate the excess potential years of life lost (a measure of ‘premature excess death’) during the pandemic…
We find that, among similarly large and wealthy countries, the U.S. had among the highest excess mortality rates in 2020, and younger people were more likely to have died due to the pandemic in the U.S. than younger people in other countries. With a much higher rate of death among people under age 75, the U.S. had the highest increase in premature deaths due the pandemic in 2020. Before the pandemic, the U.S. already had the highest premature death rate of peer nations, by far. We find that per capita premature excess death rate in the U.S. was over twice as high as the next closest peer country, the U.K…
In 2020, the U.S. had the highest pandemic-related mortality and potential years of life lost among peer countries.”