The IFO Institute recorded a significant increase in deaths during the corona pandemic: 180,000 more people died in Germany than usual. The excess mortality is particularly high in 2022. The institute assumes several possible reasons.
According to the IFO Institute, around 180,000 more people died in Germany in the Corona years 2020 to 2022 than would have been expected. “The old people were particularly badly protected,” said Joachim Ragnitz, deputy head of the IFO Dresden branch, about the calculations of the so-called excess mortality. “In the 80+ age group alone, 116,000 more people died than would have been usual, in the 60 to 79 age group it was 51,000.” In the large age group of 30 to 59 years, on the other hand, there were only 12,000 additional deaths, and among people up to 29 years of age there were only around 900.
“It is surprising that excess mortality accelerated again in 2022,” emphasized Ragnitz. There were around 39,000 additional deaths in 2020, 68,000 a year later and almost 74,000 in 2022. The exact reasons for this are still unclear. “The heat waves in the summer and the flu waves at the end of the year may also have played a role.” To calculate the expected number of deaths, the IFO Institute takes the average for the years 2016 to 2019 before the Corona period and, according to its own statements, adjusts this for changes in the age structure and increasing life expectancy.
In December, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a significantly higher excess mortality worldwide. According to this, around 14.83 million more people died in 2020 and 2021 than would have been expected without the pandemic, the organization reported in the journal “Nature”. Globally, the excess mortality was more than two and a half times as high as the reported Covid 19 deaths alone would have suggested.
However, the figure of 14.83 million released in December also includes deaths where the cause of death was not correctly stated, those from patients who were suspected to be infected but were not tested, and deaths from people with illnesses or injuries that were delayed due to the overload of health systems could be treated.
