Eurostat: Bulgaria had EU’s highest Covid-19 death rate in 2021
In the population aged less than 65 years, the highest standardised death rate from Covid-19 among the EU member states in 2021 was reported for Bulgaria, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on May 7.
The highest rates among older people were in Bulgaria and Slovakia.
The standardised death rate from Covid-19 in 2021 was higher for men aged 65 years and over than for women aged 65 years and over in all EU member states, with the largest relative difference in Estonia.
In the elderly population, the highest standardised death rates from Covid-19 in 2021 among the EU member states were recorded for men in Bulgaria and Slovakia. The same member states also reported the highest standardised death rates from Covid-19 for elderly women.
Equally, the lowest rates for elderly men and for elderly women were observed in Denmark and Finland.
Among all elderly people (both sexes), the ratio between the standardised death rates in Bulgaria (the highest rates) and Finland (the lowest rates) was 22.4 : 1, with similar ratios for elderly men (21.0 : 1) and for elderly women (24.2 : 1).
In all EU member states, the standardised death rate from Covid-19 was higher in 2021 among elderly men than among elderly women.
Nevertheless, the range in this ratio was quite narrow (compared with some other causes of death): the largest gender difference was in Estonia, where the rate for elderly men was 2.2 times as high as that for elderly women, while the ratio was lowest (1.5 times as high) in Greece and Ireland.
In the EU, the standardised death rate from Covid-19 in 2021 was 23.5 times higher among elderly people (those aged 65 years and over) than among people under 65 years.
Bulgaria reported the highest standardised death rate from Covid-19 among people aged 65 years and older, with 1 482 deaths per 100 000 elderly inhabitants. Thereafter followed Slovakia, Poland, Czechia and Lithuania, which reported over 1000 deaths per 100 000 elderly persons.
Within this age group, Finland reported the lowest standardised death rate with 66 deaths per 100 000 elderly inhabitants; no other EU member state reported fewer than 100 deaths per 100 000 people over 65.
For those under the age of 65 years, the highest standardised death rate from Covid-19 was also reported by Bulgaria, with 105.0 deaths per 100 000 people under 65. Bulgaria was the only EU member state to report a standardised death rate of more than 80 deaths per 100 000 people in this age group.
Denmark and Finland reported the lowest standardised death rates, each with 3.1 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants under 65.
In 2021, cancer was the leading cause of death for both men and women aged less than 65 years in the EU, Eurostat said.
It was a more frequent cause of death for women in this age group, with 40.6 per cent of all deaths recorded. For men, it stood at 25.6 per cent.
The other most frequent causes of death for women aged less than 65 were circulatory diseases (14.9 per cent), Covid-19 (10.2 per cent) and respiratory diseases (4.2 per cent).
For men, after cancer, circulatory diseases (22 per cent), Covid-19 (9.8 per cent) and accidents (6.9 per cent) were the major causes of deaths.
When it comes to people aged 65 years and over, the main causes of death for women were circulatory disease (37.3 per cent), cancer (16.9 per cent), Covid-19 (9.9 per cent) and respiratory disease (5.7 per cent).
For men aged 65 years and over, the main causes were the same but with varying proportions.
Circulatory disease (31.8 per cent) was the main cause, followed by cancer (23.3 per cent), Covid-19 (12 per cent) and respiratory disease (7.3 per cent), Eurostat said.
(Archive photo: Military Medical Academy)
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