Death statistics: excess mortality, especially in Saxony

In Germany, the number of deaths is increasing, according to the Federal Statistical Office in the second week of November by eight percent compared to previous years. Saxony recorded a particularly high increase.

In Germany, more people died in the second week of November than the average in previous years. According to preliminary findings from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the so-called excess mortality for this period was around eight percent. A week earlier, statisticians reported about five percent more deaths.

According to this, at least 19,161 people died in calendar week 46 of November 9-15. The mean from 2016 to 2019 was 17,817 deaths.

Saxony highlights

“The development of the death rate in Saxony is particularly remarkable at the moment,” explained the Destatis demography team. “Unlike other federal states, the difference from the average of previous years is increasing significantly from week to week.” In calendar week 41, the number of deaths was still below average. “In week 46 it was 27 percent higher.”

The number of deaths of people diagnosed with coronavirus infection is also increasing week by week. In calendar week 46, there were a total of 1,455 deaths from Covid 19 reported to the Robert Koch Institute across the country. That was 350 more deaths than in the previous week. Six weeks earlier there had been a total of 78 deaths from Covid 19.

High excess mortality in Europe

According to statistics from across Europe, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia reported extremely high excess mortality in the second week of November. In France, Austria, Portugal and Spain, excess mortality was high or very high. In other European countries, the network found a moderate excess mortality maximum for this calendar week.