Table 1.
The Bereavement Toll of COVID-19 Mortality Among Older Adults in SHARE Countries, Contextualized Against National Rates of COVID-19 Mortality and Baseline National Mortality Rates
| National rates | COVID-19 bereavement | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Sample size | COVID-19 mortality (per 1,000) |
Baseline mortality (per 1,000) |
Any network death (%) |
Family death (%) |
Nonfamily death (%) |
| Belgium | 3,758 | 8.53 | 9.70 | 9.85 | 3.19 | 6.86 |
| Spain | 2,041 | 6.20 | 9.11 | 4.41 | 2.26 | 2.21 |
| Italy | 3,688 | 5.87 | 10.47 | 7.04 | 1.65 | 5.35 |
| Sweden | 1,355 | 5.76 | 9.11 | 5.17 | 1.97 | 3.19 |
| France | 2,030 | 4.67 | 9.07 | 3.45 | 1.63 | 1.95 |
| The Netherlands | 780 | 3.63 | 8.96 | 6.19 | 2.15 | 4.03 |
| Switzerland | 1,869 | 1.99 | 7.91 | 6.14 | 2.41 | 4.34 |
| Luxembourg | 923 | 1.98 | 6.96 | 6.11 | 1.86 | 4.91 |
| Romania | 1,464 | 1.84 | 13.52 | 0.49 | 0.11 | 0.38 |
| Portugal | 1,107 | 1.78 | 10.99 | 1.69 | 0.07 | 1.62 |
| Germany | 2,643 | 1.11 | 11.53 | 1.76 | 0.73 | 1.02 |
| Denmark | 1,974 | 1.08 | 9.55 | 1.58 | 0.37 | 1.16 |
| Israel | 1,440 | 1.02 | 4.95 | 2.37 | 0.72 | 1.65 |
| Bulgaria | 803 | 0.87 | 15.39 | 0.54 | — | 0.54 |
| Hungary | 992 | 0.64 | 13.42 | 0.59 | — | 0.59 |
| Slovenia | 3,104 | 0.62 | 9.91 | 0.07 | 0.05 | 0.03 |
| Finland | 1,455 | 0.60 | 9.89 | 0.89 | 0.07 | 0.82 |
| Poland | 2,906 | 0.54 | 10.91 | 0.83 | 0.22 | 0.53 |
| Estonia | 4,506 | 0.48 | 11.94 | 0.38 | 0.27 | 0.11 |
| Croatia | 1,996 | 0.45 | 12.84 | 0.11 | — | 0.11 |
| Czech Republic | 2,605 | 0.39 | 10.64 | 0.33 | 0.33 | — |
| Lithuania | 1,254 | 0.32 | 14.09 | — | — | — |
| Greece | 3,610 | 0.25 | 11.20 | 0.08 | — | 0.08 |
| Malta | 820 | 0.23 | 7.76 | 1.34 | 0.21 | 1.13 |
| Latvia | 960 | 0.18 | 14.90 | — | — | — |
| Cyprus | 780 | 0.17 | 6.68 | 0.4 | 0.4 | — |
| Slovakia | 932 | 0.06 | 3.76 | — | — | — |
| Total | 51,795 | 3.26 | 1.15 | 2.14 |
Notes: COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019; SHARE = Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Sorted by COVID-19 mortality rates. National rates of COVID-19 mortality are based on World Health Organization data (August 31, 2020); national rates of baseline mortality are from the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat), updated as of September 10, 2020, reporting total deaths in 2018 (except for Israel, 2016 death data from Israel Ministry of Health). Percentages of respondents experiencing COVID-19 deaths in their overall network, family network, or nonfamily network are weighted based on SHARE (June to August, 2020); dashes denote estimates where zero respondents reported experiencing such a death. Family deaths include spouses, parents, children, other household members, and relatives. Nonfamily deaths include friends, caregivers, and others.