World Reaches Five Million COVID-19 Deaths

On Oct 31, 2021, the world marked the five millionth death from the coronavirus.

A look at cumulative deaths from COVID-19 by world region reveals several striking facts that might go against people's impression of the state of the pandemic.

Despite 2020 being considered the year of the coronavirus pandemic, 60 percent of people who succumbed to the disease so far died in 2021.

Coronavirus deaths have been rising consistently throughout 2021 and death counts have not recently slowed down. The death toll accelerated towards the end of 2020 and has kept up its trajectory.

More than 40 percent of COVID-19 victims have come from the American continent due to massive waves in the U.S., Brazil, Ecuador and other places. Despite the pandemic claiming many lives in India, Asian COVID-19 victims are underrepresented if compared to the continent's population. African victims are the fewest in relative and absolute terms. The continent only lost 218,000 lives to the coronavirus as of Oct 31, 2021, according to Our World in Data.