How a country looks after its old people affects how many excess deaths COVID-19 has caused

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-10-20 02:00

Australia; International

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

Countries with aging populations are likely to have seen fewer excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic if their older people have a generally higher life expectancy, according to international research. The team analysed population statistics and excess deaths during 2020 and 2021 for 158 countries. Looking at the 40 countries with the highest proportion of their population aged 60 or over, which includes Australia, the researchers say the higher the life expectancy for a person aged 60 in a country, the less likely that country was to have high excess mortality during COVID-19. Australia has one of the highest life expectancies after 60 of the countries included and had slightly fewer deaths than normal during the early pandemic. The researchers say this trend is likely a reflection of the quality of a country's healthcare system and ability to respond to health crises.