In the past month, 10 percent more people died than would be expected on the basis of figures from previous years. That is a total of 1400 more deaths than expected, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) calculates.
This so-called excess mortality was lower in November than in October. Then the number of deaths was 16 percent higher than if reality had behaved according to the statistical models.
About half of the excess mortality occurred among vulnerable groups, such as nursing home residents. But also in the rest of the population more people breathed their last than ‘normal’.
Statistics Netherlands calculates the expected number of deaths on the basis of the actual deaths registered between 2015 and the end of 2019. So that was before the corona pandemic. The progressive aging of the population is also taken into account in the expectation.
Corona cases
CBS previously found that part of the excess mortality is due to the corona virus, but that this cannot fully explain the higher number of deaths. According to official figures, 45,470 people have died of confirmed or suspected covid-19 through July of this year.
Scientific research into the causes of the excess mortality that has been observed for some time is imminent, but this has been considerably delayed due to months of haggling over whether privacy legislation allows, for example, data about corona tests and vaccinations of citizens to be shared with researchers. However, the State Attorney ultimately did not see this as an insurmountable problem.
Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health) recently reported that personal data may be shared with CBS, which can then share it with other independent researchers. As long as the data cannot be traced back to individual persons.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.