“In spring 2020, the number of deaths in the EU started to rapidly grow because of Covid-19: in some parts of Europe, the number of deaths was exceptionally high compared with the average death rate of the previous years. Hence the idea of assessing the impact of the pandemic by looking at excess mortality, i.e. the rise in the total number of deaths from any cause compared with the number of deaths of the previous years”. This is the approach taken by the Eurostat survey that was published earlier today. “Overall, 580 thousand more people died in the EU-27 from March to December 2020 compared with the same period in 2016-2019”. Excess mortality in the European Union “reached its first peak in April 2020, which is 25% more than the average for the same month of 2016-2019”. From May to July 2020, “lower excess mortality was recorded while the umpteenth rise in the death rate started in August-September with the second wave of the pandemic”. Excess mortality – as defined by Eurostat – was 8% higher than the average in August and September, +18% in October, with a peak at +41% in November, followed by +30% in December”. More country-by-country figures, the article “Statistics Explained” about excess mortality and new interactive tools to check the figures, country by country, are available on Eurostat’s website.