We do like comparisons of figures and statistics here at Money Guide Ireland.
Usually we compare things like Energy prices or broadband costs, but we have dug out some interesting but maybe scary comparisons of the numbers of deaths related to Covid-19
The death figure for Ireland as of April 12th works out at
65 deaths per million people. The USA is 62. The more shocking figure is the UK at 145 deaths per million people.
We all see the death counts from various countries on the news every day – but they are meaningless unless they can be linked to the population size.
Comparing data on the numbers of confirmed cases is fairly irrelevant because it depends on how many tests have been carried out. The data on deaths is more meaningful (as long as the countries have reported them accurately).
As you can see from the graph below taken from HERE – Ireland has slightly higher total death figures per million people than the USA . We have also shown the total world figures and the UK figures for comparison .
Of course – there are countries with much higher deaths per million people than Ireland . But we need to realise that a figure of 320 deaths might look fairly small – but it is the equivalent of the USA having 20,000 deaths. (The highest number of all countries in the world)
The figures and graphs were taken from Our World in Data which is a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Oxford and the non-profit organization Global Change Data Lab,
Sorry Terry – that was a typing error. Thanks for pointing it out. It has been corrected and now says
” The figure of 137 deaths in Ireland with a population of 4.8 million is more worrying than 1000 deaths in a country with a population ten times bigger.”
Hope that makes more sense.
I don’t think social distancing is the problem. I hope it doesn’t suggest the healthcare system is not in a good shape…
Two Comments
1- The UK like France seems to disregard the deaths that happen in Care Homes, while in Ireland everybody is counted . I don’t know what system applies in the US it may be the case that each state has made up it’s own rules.
2- While our daily numbers will rise more the US numbers could multiply as there are many places where the outbreak is at an early stage and the extent of distancing ranges from state to state and even city to city. That is before you factor in the consequences of a manufactured distrust of Science and of Government that some elements have used as a means to power.
3- A comparison of the reproduction numbers of the virus in each jurisdiction would tell a lot, but I wonder about the quality of data from the UK and the US