May 15, 2021 7:00am by David Farrar

OECD Covid-19 death rates

Covid-19 deaths/mil	Nov-20	May-21	Increase	Nov 20 Rank	May 21 Rank
Hungary	426	2987	601%	15	1
Czech	700	2774	296%	9	2
Slovak	130	2211	1601%	27	3
Belgium	1373	2113	54%	1	4
Slovenia	556	2069	272%	12	5
Italy	849	2042	141%	3	6
UK	821	1872	128%	4	7
Poland	378	1860	392%	18	8
US	802	1794	124%	5	9
Spain	934	1691	81%	2	10
Mexico	794	1684	112%	6	11
Portugal	398	1671	320%	17	12
France	769	1635	113%	8	13
Colombia	698	1534	120%	10	14
Lithuania	160	1507	842%	24	15
Chile	789	1421	80%	7	16
Sweden	642	1400	118%	11	17
Switzerland	496	1231	148%	14	18
Latvia	93	1187	1176%	28	19
Austria	285	1151	304%	21	20
Greece	174	1073	517%	23	21
Germany	178	1021	474%	22	22
Netherlands	531	1013	91%	13	23
Ireland	409	989	142%	16	24
Estonia	73	909	1145%	30	25
Israel	307	693	126%	19	26
Canada	307	650	112%	19	27
Turkey	150	512	241%	25	28
Denmark	137	430	214%	26	29
Finland	69	167	142%	31	30
Norway	58	141	143%	32	31
Japan	16	87	444%	34	32
Iceland	76	85	12%	29	33
South Korea	10	37	270%	35	34
Australia	35	35	0%	33	35
New Zealand	5	5	0%	36	36

This table updates the stats I published six months ago (data from here). Some huge changes.

The worst three countries are now from Eastern Europe. Hungary has the highest death rate on the OECD followed by Czechia and Slovak. Hungary has gone from 15th highest to first.

The UK has dropped from 4th to 7th and US from 5th to 9th. Sweden is now middle of the pack on 17th.

The three countries that have had almost no increase are Australia, New Zealand and Iceland. The fact they are all islands is not a coincidence. South Korea has done very well but I guess it could be considered a semi-island as only land border is with North Korea which has no people crossing.

Perhaps the most impressive border controls have been Norway which has a land border with Sweden but has had relatively few deaths.

Of course New Zealand has the lowest death toll in the OECD which is a great place to be.