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General Findings

COVID-19 PANDEMIC has hit Europe much more than other geographical regions of the world, having almost 26% of diagnosed cases and deaths. We can also see that there is a significant difference between Western and Eastern Europe, with Western Europe having almost 16% of cases and deaths.

AreaTotal CasesCases %Total DeathsDeaths %Mortality %Cases per 1MDeaths per 1M
Western Europe35.520.98616,4%665.34215,2%1,9%83.4281.563
Eastern Europe21.189.4979,8%511.25911,7%2,4%62.2411.502
Total Europe56.710.48326,2%1.176.60126,9%2,1%74.0141.535
North America40.280.93018,6%655.58815,0%1,6%109.8971.789
Latin America and the Caribbean43.458.12920,1%1.327.01130,3%3,1%67.1622.051
Asia-Pacific50.343.78123,3%783.27717,9%1,6%11.860185
Middle East and North Africa20.012.2299,3%297.9686,8%1,5%37.267555
Sub-Saharan Africa5.423.1142,5%132.9403,0%2,5%4.882120
Global216.228.666 4.373.385 2,0%28.182570

Europe - Deaths per 1M MA7

Europe - Deaths per 1M MA7

The first wave of the pandemic (Feb-May 2020) was quite difficult, with a stable and controllable summer period, followed by a much more aggressive second wave, especially from October 2020 onwards. The second wave reached its peak during January 2021, when a decline started, but before reaching the highest level of the first wave towards the end of February, a third wave started to develop, somehow milder than the second one. It is interesting to examine the differentiation by region of the general pandemic trend. The graph below, of Deaths per Million of Population, demonstrates the outlined differences.

Deaths per 1M

deaths depth europe

Western European countries, together with Sweden, faced a much more severe first wave, compared to other European regions. While in the second wave, ex-Eastern block countries of Central Europe, the Balkans and Greece together with the Western European countries, were hit badly by the pandemic. On the other hand, the Baltic and the rest of Scandinavian countries had a much milder hit during both waves. Finally, the Central European countries and the Balkans contributed mostly during the third wave.

Phases by Regions

Europe - Regions# CountriesTotal Cases per 1MTotal Deaths per 1M% Mortality
Western Europe1788.7261.6791,9%
Ex East Block (Central Europe)489.9052.3102,6%
Balkans1173.8171.8032,4%
Greece154.4541.2672,3%
Baltic556.5731.1162,0%
Scandinavian337.7452610,7%
Sweden1109.4031.4071,3%
Europe - RegionsCases per 1M(Feb'20 - May'20)Cases per 1M(Jun'20 - Aug'20)Cases per 1M(Sep'20 - Nov'20)Cases per 1M(Dec'20 - Feb'21)Cases per 1M(Mar'21 - May'21)Cases per 1M (Jun‘21 - Aug‘21)
Western Europe3.2611.61721.61626.09317.81815.998
Ex East Block (Central Europe)59898527.04328.46232.088730
Balkans9593.56320.41822.92421.5014.452
Greece2726738.7748.01319.71817.004
Baltic1.1682.15112.61917.67719.3123.647
Scandinavian1.6145076.21011.8459.6397.930
Sweden3.7534.48115.53239.07539.7535.398
Europe - RegionsDeaths per 1M(Feb'20 - May'20)Deaths per 1M(Jun'20 - Aug'20)Deaths per 1M(Sep'20 - Nov'20)Deaths per 1M(Dec'20 - Feb'21)Deaths per 1M(Mar'21 - May'21)Cases per 1M (Jun‘21 - Aug‘21)
Western Europe3983225565523265
Ex East Block (Central Europe)301843485993936
Balkans4610736658561783
Greece168192385521144
Baltic183918132946880
Scandinavian67620128329
Sweden4521148655614013
Europe - Regions% Mortality(Feb'20 - May'20)% Mortality(Jun'20 - Aug'20)% Mortality(Sep'20 - Nov'20)% Mortality(Dec'20 - Feb'21)% Mortality(Mar'21 - May'21)% Mortality (Jun‘21 - Aug‘21)
Western Europe12,2%2,0%1,2%2,5%1,3%0,4%
Ex East Block (Central Europe)5,1%1,9%1,6%3,0%2,9%4,9%
Balkans4,8%3,0%1,8%2,6%2,9%1,9%
Greece6,0%1,2%2,2%4,8%2,6%0,8%
Baltic1,6%1,8%1,4%1,9%2,4%2,2%
Scandinavian4,2%1,2%0,3%1,1%0,3%0,1%
Sweden12,1%2,6%0,6%1,4%0,4%0,2%

Ranking - Cases & Deaths per 1M (Feb-May 2021)

A/ACountryCases 1M
1Montenegro182.996
2Czechia156.194
3Cyprus130.005
4Slovenia127.158
5Luxembourg123.707
6Netherlands112.204
7Sweden109.403
8Serbia109.112
9Estonia106.597
10Lithuania106.295
11Spain103.708
12France103.390
13Belgium102.724
14United Kingdom100.705
15Portugal100.141
16Monaco95.814
17Croatia91.164
18Switzerland90.153
19Liechtenstein85.283
20North Macedonia84.440
21Hungary83.174
22Kosovo79.554
23Austria77.150
24Poland75.717
25Italy75.025
26Latvia73.518
27Malta73.363
28Slovakia71.299
29Ireland71.273
30Moldova65.992
31Bulgaria64.710
32Bosnia and Herzegovina64.425
33Denmark59.286
34Romania56.518
35Greece54.454
36Ukraine52.418
37Albania50.899
38Belarus50.758
39Germany47.190
40Russia47.084
41Iceland30.222
42Norway29.383
43Finland23.153
A/ACountryDeaths 1M
1Hungary3.073
2Bosnia and Herzegovina2.967
3North Macedonia2.839
4Czechia2.833
5Montenegro2.544
6Bulgaria2.686
7Slovakia2.289
8Belgium2.193
9Italy2.134
10Croatia2.030
11United Kingdom1.978
12Poland1.970
13Slovenia1.837
14Portugal1.722
15France1.686
16Spain1.683
17Romania1.590
18Moldova1.582
19Lithuania1.502
20Liechtenstein1.433
21Sweden1.407
22Kosovo1.372
23Luxembourg1.359
24Latvia1.340
25Greece1.267
26Russia1.246
27Ukraine1.240
28Austria1.186
29Switzerland1.185
30Germany1.104
31Serbia1.040
32Netherlands1.038
33Ireland1.037
34Monaco1.028
35Estonia973
36Malta883
37Albania877
38Cyprus572
39Denmark438
40Belarus399
41Finland181
42Norway153
42Iceland92

GDP per Capita vs COVID-19 Test Policy

GDP per Capita vs COVID-19 Test Policy

The above graph demonstrates a positive correlation between GDP and COVID-19 testing policy. There are though some exceptions to this rule, with Malta, Chechia and the United Kingdom performing significantly higher number of tests given their GDP, while Switzerland, Norway and Ireland did exactly the opposite.

GDP per Capita vs Deaths per 1M

GDP per Capita vs Deaths per 1M

With respect to GDP per Capita, we note that there is a group of countries who perform well as far as Deaths per Million is concerned independent of the level of GDP per Capita. (Some Balkan countries, some ex-eastern block countries, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Finland, Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland and Norway). While there is another group of countries of low and medium GDP per Capita who demonstrate much higher Death per Million index with outstanding the central European countries and some Balkan countries (Hungary, Poland,Chechia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia etc). It looks like the GDP per Capita is not a primary factor in the evolution of the pandemic in Europe. There is a negative Correlation between GDP and Deaths per 1M. (Pearson = -0.4)