Mortality under-25 during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Sex, Region, and Race in the US

Hallie Eilerts-Spinelli, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Enrique Acosta, Centre for Demographic Studies
Li Liu, Johns Hopkins University

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic ended in 2023 after more than three years and 6.9 million deaths attributed to the virus worldwide. The most devastating impacts of the pandemic were reserved for older adults and the effect of the pandemic on children and young people (CYP) is often overlooked. However, notwithstanding much larger increments in the total number of deaths at the oldest ages, relative increases from pre-pandemic mortality have been found to be similar for individuals aged 15 and older in 2020 in the United States (US). We assess the impact of the pandemic on CYP from 2020-2023 in terms of the overall level of mortality, deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 versus the secondary impacts of the pandemic, and relative risks by detailed age, geography, sex, and race/ethnicity. This work contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the ramifications of the pandemic on CYP in the US.

Keywords: Population, Shocks and Pandemics, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Mortality and Longevity, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination

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