COVID-19 is often portrayed as a “disease of the elderly,” but is this portrayal supported by the evidence? How does the risk of dying from COVID-19 vary by age? How does it compare with other causes of death? And how does the age pattern of COVID-19 mortality differ across countries? In this study I attempt to answer these questions and others about the relationship between COVID-19 mortality and age.
*** Update (February 17, 2021): Now published in Demographic Research
Age-specific mortality rates of COVID-19 (2020) and Pneumonia & Influenza (1999–2018), United States. Pneumonia & Influenza mortality rates based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vital statistics, adjusted to the same calendar period as COVID-19 provisional mortality data.