In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary CDC data shows there were 3.4 million deaths in the US, 17% higher than what was expected for the year.
With nearly 500,000 more deaths than what was expected, the excess death rate for 2021 was three percentage points higher than in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. The overall death rate for 2021 was also 2% higher than 2020 and 19% higher than in 2019.
Excess deaths compare the expected number of deaths in a place over a given time to the actual number of deaths that occurred.
