Worldwide COVID-19 Deaths Estimated At 18 Million, 3 Times Higher Than Recorded

KEY POINTS

The research also estimated that around 1.13 million Americans have died of COVID-19
The new figures were based on the number of "excess deaths"
Some southern U.S. states had some of the world's most excess mortalities

The COVID-19 pandemic may have killed 18 million people worldwide, three times higher than the recorded number of deaths, according to researchers.

Officially, it was reported that more than six million people died of COVID-19 at the end of 2021. However, a study published in The Lancet suggests that the virus may have killed around 18.2 million people worldwide, three times higher than the reported death toll.

As of Thursday, official records showed there have been a total of 6,028,678 deaths across the globe.

In addition, the official tally shows that more than 965,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. However, the researchers estimate the true number of deaths to be around 1.13 million.

The new figures are based on the number of “excess deaths” worldwide. Some of the excess mortalities may have been missed in official counts for a number of reasons, including lack of reporting resources, lack of access to health care, behavior changes during the COVID-19 lockdowns or economic turmoil.

The researchers found that seven countries accounted for over half of all excess mortalities over the past two years. The countries are the U.S., Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Indonesia and India. The latter accounted for more than 4 million excess deaths.

Bolivia, Bulgaria and Eswatini had the highest estimated excess deaths. In each of the countries, there were an estimated six excess deaths per 1,000 people. The researchers also noted that some southern states in the U.S. had some of the world’s most excess mortalities.

"Further research will help to reveal how many deaths were caused directly by COVID-19, and how many occurred as an indirect result of the pandemic," Haidong Wang, a demography specialist at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the paper’s lead author, said.

The research was conducted prior to the peak of the highly transmissible Omicron variant which drove a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. and continues to drive a wave of mortalities in other countries over the past few months.

The Omicron variant is currently surging in parts of Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand and Tonga.