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COVID by the Numbers: How deadly is COVID-19 in comparison to other causes of death?

patient hospital covid coronavirus death — CDC

By Avery Johnson

Published January 13, 2021 6:47 PM

(KION) COVID-19 has taken its toll around the state and around the country. According to the California Department of Public Health, California has surpassed 30,000 COVID-19 related deaths, and Johns Hopkins University reports that the U.S. is approaching 400,000 deaths.

To put those numbers into perspective, we gathered information about numbers related to causes of death and compared them to the COVID-19 death toll.

California

The California Department of Public Health reports that there were 30,513 COVID-19 related deaths as of Jan. 11.

Many people compare COVID-19 to the flu, so we looked up the number of flu-related deaths the CDC reported in the State of California in previous years.

These are the number of flu or pneumonia-related deaths reported over a four year span:

2014- 5,970 deaths
2015- 6,188 deaths
2016- 5,981 deaths
2017- 6,340 deaths

If you add the deaths from all four years together, it comes to 24,479 deaths, which is lower than the number of COVID-19 deaths reported since the start of the pandemic about one year ago.

Over the course of those years, the flu/pneumonia were listed as the eighth leading cause of death in California. This is how COVID-19 compares to other causes of death.

Leading causes of death 2017:

Heart Disease- 62,797 deaths
Cancer- 59,516 deaths
Stroke- 16,355 deaths
Alzheimer's Disease- 16,238 deaths

Leading causes of death 2016:

Heart Disease- 61,573 deaths
Cancer- 59,515 deaths
Stroke- 15,680 deaths
Alzheimer's Disease- 15,570 deaths

Leading causes of death 2015:

Heart Disease- 61,289 deaths
Cancer- 59,629 deaths
Stroke- 15,065 deaths
Alzheimer's Disease- 15,065 deaths

Leading causes of death 2014:

Heart Disease- 58,412 deaths
Cancer- 58,189 deaths
Stroke- 13,731 deaths
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases- 12,780 deaths

The CDC has not released data for 2020 yet, but if the numbers remain consistent, COVID-19 could be the third leading cause of death in California in that year. Heart disease and cancer have higher death tolls in the previous years.

Source- National Center for Health Statistics, Stats of the State of California

United States

According to a count by Johns Hopkins University, 384,204 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported in the U.S. as of Jan. 13.

Flu or pneumonia-related deaths were reported by the CDC over the course of 2014 to 2017.

2014- 55,227 deaths
2015- 57,062 deaths
2016- 51,537 deaths
2017- 55,672 deaths

The total number of flu or pneumonia-related deaths across all four years amounts to 219,498 deaths, which is still lower than the number of COVID-19 deaths reported during the course of the pandemic.

This is how COVID-19 compares to other causes of death.

Leading causes of death 2017:

Heart Disease- 647,457 deaths
Cancer- 599,108 deaths
Accidents- 169,936 deaths
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases- 160,201 deaths

Leading causes of death 2016:

Heart Disease- 635,260 deaths
Cancer- 598,038 deaths
Accidents- 161,374 deaths
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases- 154,596 deaths

Leading causes of death 2015:

Heart Disease- 633,842 deaths
Cancer- 595,930 deaths
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases- 155,041 deaths
Accidents- 146,571 deaths

Leading causes of death 2014:

Heart Disease- 614,348 deaths
Cancer- 591,700 deaths
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases- 147,101 deaths
Accidents- 135,928 deaths

As with data for California, if the 2020 numbers are consistent with previous years, COVID-19 will rank as the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer.

Data sources are hyperlinked above.

Wars and Mass Casualty Events

Most of the previous causes of death are related to diseases, but how does COVID-19 compare to other deaths during historical moments?

These are the number of deaths that resulted from wars with American involvement, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

American Revolution (1775-1783)- 4,435 battle deaths
War of 1812 (1812-1815)- 2,260 battle deaths
Indian Wars (approx. 1817-1898)- 1,000 estimated battle deaths
Mexican Wars (1846-1848)- 13,283 total deaths
Civil War (1861-1865)- 498,332 estimated total deaths in battle and in theater
Spanish-American War (1898-1902)- 2,446 battle and non-theater deaths
World War I (1917-1918)- 116,516 battle and non-theater deaths
World War II (1941-1945)- 405,399 battle and non-theater deaths
Korean War (1950-1953)- 54,246 battle, in theater and non-theater deaths
Vietnam War (1964-1975)- 90,220 battle, in theater and non-theater deaths
Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991)- 1,948 battle, in theater and non-theater deaths

Other sources estimate that about 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War. In total, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that there were a total of 1,190,085 American battle, other in theater and other non-theater deaths between 1775 and 1991.

Source: Department of Veterans Affairs

A major mass casualty event in American history was the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001. The total number of people who died that day at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and near Shanksville, PA aboard United Airlines Flight 93 amounts to 2,977 people.

Source: CNN Sept. 11 Fact Sheet

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2,403 Americans died in the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

Source: U.S. Census Pearl Harbor Fact Sheet