Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease pandemic statistics & facts

COVID-19: the pandemic in numbers

COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, became the deadliest pandemic of the past century. First identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the virus spread to every country in the world within months. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020, and described the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Over the next three years, successive waves driven by new variants overwhelmed hospitals, forced lockdowns affecting billions of people and led to the fastest vaccine development programme in history.

By August 2026, countries had reported almost 780 million confirmed cases and more than 7.1 million deaths to the WHO. These official figures are known to understate the true toll by a wide margin, because many infections were never tested and many deaths were never attributed to COVID-19. The WHO estimates that there were about 14.9 million excess deaths linked to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 alone, nearly three times the number officially reported in those two years.

The WHO ended the global health emergency on May 5, 2023, and COVID-19 is now managed as an ongoing, endemic respiratory disease alongside influenza and RSV. But the virus has not gone away. It continues to evolve, it still causes around 100,000 deaths a year in the United States alone, and millions of people live with long-term symptoms known as long COVID. This report sets out the latest data on cases, deaths, excess mortality, vaccination, the current burden, long COVID and the variants circulating in 2026.

How the pandemic unfolded

The first cases of an unusual pneumonia were reported in Wuhan in late December 2019, and Chinese scientists published the genetic sequence of the new virus in January 2020. The first wave in early 2020 hit China, then Italy, Spain, Iran and the rest of Europe, followed by the United States and Latin America. Governments responded with border closures, lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates and mass testing on a scale never seen before.

New variants shaped each later wave. The Alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom in late 2020, was followed by Beta and Gamma, then by Delta, which drove a devastating wave in India in April and May 2021 and caused severe illness worldwide. In November 2021, the Omicron variant was identified in southern Africa. Omicron was far more transmissible and caused the largest number of infections of any wave, but it was generally less severe, especially among people with immunity from vaccination or earlier infection. Since then, all circulating variants have been descendants of Omicron.

Vaccines were developed in under a year. The first COVID-19 vaccines were authorised in December 2020, and by the end of 2024 more than 13.64 billion doses had been given worldwide. As immunity built up, deaths fell sharply from their peak in 2021. The WHO declared an end to the emergency phase in May 2023, and in May 2025 its member states adopted a Pandemic Agreement intended to improve preparedness for future outbreaks.

Reported cases worldwide

According to WHO data, about 779 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide by August 2026. The true number of infections is far higher. Seroprevalence studies, which test blood for antibodies, found that by 2022 most of the population in many countries had been infected at least once, and many people have been infected several times. Testing has also fallen sharply since 2022, so recent case counts capture only a small fraction of infections. The world population context is covered in our data on world population.

Current reported activity is low. In the 28 days to August 30, 2026, countries reported 62,847 new cases to the WHO from 58 countries, up from 41,695 in the previous 28-day period, along with 279 deaths from 31 countries. Of the 51,115 samples tested for SARS-CoV-2 through sentinel surveillance in the last week of August 2026, 2.5 percent were positive. The WHO stresses that these figures do not accurately reflect infection rates because so few countries now test and report regularly.

Reported deaths by country

More than 7.1 million deaths from COVID-19 had been reported worldwide by mid 2026. The United States reported the highest number, about 1.24 million, followed by Brazil with 704,000, India with 534,000, Russia with 404,000 and Mexico with 335,000. The United Kingdom reported 232,000 deaths, Peru 221,000, Italy 199,000, Germany 175,000 and France 168,000.

The US reported the most deaths: about 1.24 million COVID-19 deaths were reported in the United States, followed by 704,000 in Brazil and 534,000 in India.

Reported deaths depend heavily on how much testing a country did and how it recorded causes of death, so these totals are not a perfect guide to the real impact. India, for example, reported 534,000 deaths, but independent studies and WHO estimates suggest the true number of excess deaths there was several million. Countries with strong testing and death registration, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, captured a larger share of their true toll in official figures.

Deaths per million people

Adjusting for population size gives a different picture. Peru had the highest reported death rate in the world, at about 6,603 deaths per million people, after its health system was overwhelmed in 2020 and 2021. Eastern and Central European countries dominate the rest of the top ten: Bulgaria had 5,681 deaths per million, North Macedonia 5,429, Bosnia and Herzegovina 5,123 and Hungary 5,072, followed by Croatia, Slovenia, Georgia, Montenegro and Czechia.

Peru and Eastern Europe hit hardest: Peru reported about 6,603 COVID-19 deaths per million people, the highest rate in the world, followed by Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Several factors explain the high rates in Eastern Europe, including older populations, high rates of chronic disease, weaker health systems and, in many cases, low vaccination rates when Delta arrived in 2021. For comparison, the United States reported about 3,626 deaths per million, the United Kingdom 3,404, Brazil 3,347 and Italy 3,329, while India reported 374 per million, a figure widely considered to be a large undercount.

The true toll: excess mortality

Because official counts miss many deaths, researchers use excess mortality, the number of deaths from all causes above what would normally be expected, to measure the full impact of the pandemic. It includes deaths directly caused by COVID-19 that were not recorded as such and deaths caused indirectly, for example when people could not get treatment for other conditions.

The WHO estimated in May 2022 that the pandemic was associated with about 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021, with a range of 13.3 million to 16.6 million. That compares with 5.4 million COVID-19 deaths officially reported over the same period. A separate study published in The Lancet in 2022 by the COVID-19 Excess Mortality Collaborators estimated 18.2 million excess deaths over the same two years.

Nearly three times the official count: the WHO estimates 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021, against 5.4 million reported COVID-19 deaths.

The WHO found that 81 percent of excess deaths occurred in middle-income countries: 53 percent in lower-middle-income countries and 28 percent in upper-middle-income countries. About 84 percent were concentrated in South-East Asia, Europe and the Americas, and 68 percent in just ten countries. Men accounted for 57 percent of the global excess deaths, and older people for the great majority.

Middle-income countries bore the brunt: 81 percent of global excess deaths occurred in middle-income countries, 53 percent in lower-middle-income and 28 percent in upper-middle-income countries.

Who was most at risk

Age was by far the strongest predictor of dying from COVID-19. The risk of death after infection rose steeply with age, roughly doubling with every eight to ten years of life, so that people over 80 faced a risk hundreds of times higher than young adults. In most countries, the great majority of COVID-19 deaths were among people aged 65 and over, and residents of care homes were especially vulnerable in the first waves before vaccines became available.

Men were more likely to die than women: the WHO found that 57 percent of global excess deaths in 2020 and 2021 were among men. Underlying conditions such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, chronic lung and kidney disease and weakened immune systems also sharply increased the risk of severe illness. Deprivation mattered too. Workers in jobs that could not be done from home, people in crowded housing and communities with poorer access to health care suffered higher rates of infection and death, which is why the pandemic widened health inequalities in many countries.

Children were at much lower risk of severe illness, although a small number developed a serious inflammatory condition known as MIS-C, and infants under six months still have high hospitalisation rates today. The greater impact on children came indirectly, through school closures that at their peak affected more than 1.5 billion learners worldwide, disrupted routine vaccinations and increased mental health problems among young people.

Testing and treatment

Testing was central to the early response. Countries built up laboratory capacity for PCR tests at great speed, and in 2021 cheap rapid antigen tests became widely available for use at home. At the peak, billions of tests were carried out worldwide. Since 2022, however, most governments have scaled back free testing and many people now test at home without reporting the result, which is why official case counts have become an unreliable guide to how much virus is circulating. Many countries now rely instead on wastewater monitoring and sentinel surveillance through selected clinics and hospitals.

Treatment also improved steadily. Early in the pandemic, doctors learned that the steroid dexamethasone reduced deaths among patients needing oxygen, and that placing patients on their front, known as proning, helped breathing. Antiviral drugs followed: remdesivir was approved for hospital use, and oral antivirals such as nirmatrelvir with ritonavir, sold as Paxlovid, were authorised from late 2021 for people at high risk who are treated early. Monoclonal antibody treatments were widely used for a time but lost effectiveness as Omicron variants evolved. Together with vaccination, better treatment is a major reason why the risk of dying after infection is now far lower than in 2020.

Vaccination and lives saved

The development of COVID-19 vaccines was one of the fastest in medical history. Within a year of the virus being sequenced, several vaccines had been shown to be highly effective against severe disease, including the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna, the viral vector vaccines of Oxford and AstraZeneca and of Johnson and Johnson, and inactivated vaccines developed in China. By the end of 2024, more than 13.64 billion doses had been administered worldwide, and more than 5.6 billion people, about 70 percent of the world population, had received at least one dose. The industry behind them is covered in our overview of the global pharmaceutical industry.

Vaccines saved millions of lives. A modelling study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases in 2022 estimated that COVID-19 vaccines prevented 19.8 million deaths in the first year of vaccination, from December 2020 to December 2021, based on excess mortality, or 14.4 million based on officially reported deaths. That was out of an estimated 31.4 million deaths that would otherwise have occurred.

Direct protection saved most lives: of the 19.8 million deaths prevented, 15.5 million came from direct protection against severe illness and 4.3 million from indirect effects such as reduced transmission.

Access was deeply unequal. In the same study, vaccination prevented 66 deaths per 10,000 people in high-income countries but only 2.7 per 10,000 in low-income countries, where vaccines arrived much later. High and upper-middle-income countries accounted for 12.2 million of the 19.8 million deaths averted. The researchers estimated that a further 599,300 lives could have been saved if the WHO target of vaccinating 40 percent of the population of every country by the end of 2021 had been met.

COVID-19 today: the ongoing burden

Although the emergency is over, COVID-19 remains a significant cause of illness and death, especially among older people. A study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), published in JAMA Internal Medicine in January 2026, estimated that COVID-19 caused 43.6 million illnesses, 10.0 million outpatient visits, 1.1 million hospitalisations and 101,300 deaths in the United States between October 2022 and September 2023. In the following 12 months, to September 2024, it estimated 33.0 million illnesses, 7.7 million outpatient visits, 879,100 hospitalisations and 100,800 deaths.

Older adults bear most of the burden. In the 2023 to 2024 period, people aged 65 and over made up 17.7 percent of the US population but accounted for 47.9 percent of COVID-19 illnesses, 64.3 percent of outpatient visits, 67.6 percent of hospitalisations and 81.2 percent of deaths. About 1 in 100 older adults was hospitalised with COVID-19 in that period. Infants under six months had the second-highest hospitalisation rates. The age profile of the US population is shown in our data on the US population by sex and age.

Older adults bear most of the burden: people aged 65 and over were 17.7 percent of the US population but accounted for 81.2 percent of COVID-19 deaths.

These figures mean COVID-19 still kills more Americans each year than influenza does in most seasons. Health authorities in many countries continue to recommend annual or twice-yearly vaccination for older and high-risk people, and antiviral treatments such as nirmatrelvir with ritonavir, sold as Paxlovid, can reduce the risk of severe disease when taken early.

Long COVID

For many people, COVID-19 does not end when the infection clears. Long COVID, which the WHO calls post COVID-19 condition, covers a wide range of symptoms lasting at least three months, including fatigue, shortness of breath, difficulty concentrating, often described as brain fog, and problems with the heart, lungs and nervous system. The WHO estimates that about 6 percent of people with symptomatic infections develop the condition.

In the United States, the National Center for Health Statistics found that 6.9 percent of adults had ever had long COVID in 2022 and 3.4 percent had it at the time of the survey. Women were more affected than men, with 8.5 percent having ever had long COVID against 5.2 percent of men. Adults aged 35 to 49 had the highest rates, at 8.9 percent ever and 4.7 percent currently, while adults aged 65 and over had the lowest, at 4.1 percent and 2.3 percent.

Middle-aged adults most affected: 8.9 percent of US adults aged 35 to 49 had ever had long COVID in 2022, and 4.7 percent still had it.

Long COVID has significant economic consequences, because it affects many people of working age and can reduce their ability to work for months or years. It also overlaps with the wider mental health impact of the pandemic, which saw rises in anxiety and depression during lockdowns, as covered in our data on mental health worldwide. Research into causes and treatments continues, but there is still no approved cure.

Variants in 2026

SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, and new Omicron sublineages regularly replace older ones. As of August 2026, the WHO reported that XFG was the most common variant worldwide, accounting for 41 percent of sequences, up from 28 percent in mid July. NB.1.8.1 accounted for 17 percent and PQ.16.1.1 for 15 percent, while BA.3.2, a more distantly related lineage first detected in late 2024, was also being monitored. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that no variant currently meets the criteria for a variant of concern.

XFG dominates: the XFG variant accounted for 41 percent of sequences worldwide in August 2026, followed by NB.1.8.1 at 17 percent and PQ.16.1.1 at 15 percent.

Vaccine makers update their products to match circulating variants. In May 2026, the WHO technical advisory group on COVID-19 vaccine composition recommended a monovalent LP.8.1 vaccine as the primary option, with vaccines based on XFG or NB.1.8.1 also acceptable if they produce broad and robust immune responses. Genomic surveillance has declined since the emergency phase, so the number of sequences is much smaller than in 2021 and 2022, and new variants may be detected later.

Impact on health systems

The pandemic placed enormous pressure on health systems. At the peak of each wave, hospitals ran out of intensive care beds, oxygen and staff, and many postponed routine operations and cancer treatment. Millions of people missed screenings, vaccinations and care for chronic diseases, and the WHO reported that essential health services were disrupted in more than 90 percent of countries during 2020 and 2021. Health workers were among the hardest hit: the WHO estimated that between 80,000 and 180,000 health and care workers died from COVID-19 between January 2020 and May 2021.

The crisis also accelerated change. Telemedicine and digital health tools were adopted rapidly, mRNA technology proved itself and is now being developed for other diseases, and investment in genomic surveillance and public health data grew. Our coverage of AI in healthcare and the medical technology market shows how the sector has continued to evolve. For the economic side of the pandemic, including its effect on growth, jobs, tourism and debt, see our separate report on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economy, and our data on how the pandemic added to billionaire wealth.

Lessons and preparedness

The pandemic exposed serious gaps in global preparedness. Many countries lacked stockpiles of protective equipment, testing capacity and clear plans, and the unequal distribution of vaccines showed the limits of international cooperation. In response, WHO member states adopted the Pandemic Agreement in May 2025, which aims to improve prevention, surveillance, research and fair access to vaccines and treatments in future pandemics. The International Health Regulations were also amended in 2024 to strengthen the response to health emergencies.

Scientists warn that another pandemic is a question of when, not if. The emergence of new viruses from animals, the spread of avian influenza among mammals and the continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2 all underline the need for sustained investment in surveillance, vaccines and health systems, even as public attention has moved on from COVID-19.

The outlook for COVID-19

COVID-19 has become a permanent part of the landscape of respiratory disease. Most people now have some immunity from vaccination, infection or both, and deaths are far lower than at the peak. But the virus still causes tens of thousands of deaths a year in large countries, it continues to produce new variants and long COVID affects millions. Surveillance and reporting have fallen sharply, making it harder to track the disease. The priorities for the years ahead are protecting older and vulnerable people through updated vaccines and treatment, understanding and treating long COVID, and ensuring the world is better prepared for the next pandemic. Our data on the US population and the UK population provide demographic context for the countries covered here.

COVID-19 in numbers

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