(CNSNews.com) – Despite the grim and still-climbing COVID-19 death toll in the United States, of the 14 Western countries reporting the highest numbers of fatalities linked to the coronavirus disease, the U.S. remains on the lower end of the scale of death rates in proportion to the national population.
The U.S. on Thursday recorded the biggest single-day number of deaths – 4,591 in a 24-hour period ending at 8 PM Eastern Time – an 84 percent increase from the previous day’s then-record of 2,494, according to the real-time database of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Over the past seven days, the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has risen by an average of almost 29,500 a day, and as of early Friday the total stands at 671,349.
Looking at the 14 Western democracies reporting the highest numbers of fatalities, eight of the 14 have higher per capita COVID-19 death rates than the United States, and five of the countries have lower rates.
The country with the highest number of deaths per capita is Belgium, where the 4,857 deaths constitute 0.0414 percent of its national population.
At the other end of the scale of 14 countries stands Canada, where the 1,258 deaths constitute 0.0033 percent of its national population.
All 14, in decreasing order, are:
Belgium (4,857 deaths): 0.0414 percent of the population
Spain (19,315 deaths): 0.0386 percent
Italy (22,170 deaths): 0.0355 percent
France (17,920 deaths): 0.0264 percent
Britain (13,729 deaths): 0.0208 percent
Netherlands (3,315 deaths): 0.0191 percent
Switzerland (1,281 deaths): 0.0152 percent
Sweden (1,333 deaths): 0.0130 percent
United States (32,916 deaths): 0.0098 percent
Ireland (486 deaths): 0.0093 percent
Portugal (629 deaths): 0.0061 percent
Germany (4,052 deaths): 0.0050 percent
Austria (410 deaths): 0.0046 percent
Canada (1,258 deaths): 0.0033 percent
(China and Iran, both of whose governments are believed to be significantly underreporting both COVID-19 cases and deaths, are at 0.0002 and 0.0042 percent respectively.)
The fatality figures, as of early Friday morning, are the JHU database. Population figures are from the CIA World Factbook.
