Statistik Austria : More than 90 000 deaths in Austria in 2020; life expectancy declines in the pandemic

Press release: 12.414-005/21

Vienna,2021-01-14 - According to first preliminary results by Statistics Austria, 90 123 deaths have been reported so far for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2020. This number will continue to rise in the upcoming weeks, as the registry offices are expected to report additional deaths from the previous year. Moreover, this figure does not yet include deaths of Austrians that occurred abroad. Comparing these 90 123 deaths in 2020 with the average of the last five years (for consistency reasons also excluding deaths that occurred abroad), there is an increase of 10.9%. The increase in the number of deaths affected men (+13.7%) to a significantly greater extent than women (+8.2%).

The available data also allows a first preliminary estimate of life expectancy in 2020: 'Life expectancy in the Corona year 2020 has fallen by around half a year compared to 2019 and is now 78.9 years for men and 83.7 years for women. With a strong spread of vaccinations and after the pandemic has been overcome, it can be assumed that life expectancy will return to the growth trend in the medium term. Experience from stronger influenza years shows a similar trend. However, the possible long-term consequences of surviving corona diseases are still open', says Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.

A look at the preliminary results on the numbers of deaths in the individual calendar weeks shows that in calendar week 52 - from 21 to 27 December 2020 - 2 114 people died in Austria, around 22% more than the average of the years 2015 to 2019 for the same calendar week. In calendar week 53 - from 28 December 2020 to 3 January 2021 - 1 964 deaths were registered, which is 28% more than in 2015, the latest year with 53 calendar weeks. However, there has been a downward trend in weekly deaths since the peak in calendar week 49, when 2 543 people died and the five-year average was exceeded by almost 59%. In the last three weeks of 2020, the values remained at a relatively high level, but were already slightly lower than at the peaks of the strong flu wave in January 2017.

Further information on deaths and life expectancy can be found on our website, where an interactive web application - the Atlas of Deaths - also graphically illustrates the development and regional distribution. Detailed results can be found in Statistics Austria's open data repository.

For more detailed information, please refer to the German version.