There were some 450,000 excess deaths in the European Union between March and November 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic when compared with average death rates recorded from 2016 to 2019, data released by the EU's statistics agency Eurostat showed.

Eurostat had assessed the impact of the pandemic by looking at the excess mortality, i.e. the increase in the total number of deaths, from any cause, compared with deaths in previous years. It used monthly data provided by all 27 EU member states except Ireland, which did not provide data and was excluded from the report.

Data showed that excess mortality reached its peak in November when it was 40 percent above average. The excess mortality reached its first peak in April, with an increase of 25 percent. After April, figures gradually started to drop before another surge in mortality began in August with the second wave of the pandemic.

The November peak was particularly deadly in Bulgaria, Poland, and Slovenia, each recording an increase of more than 90 percent in mortality rates. In the same month, Belgium registered an increase of nearly 60 percent, while Italy and Germany reported increases of 50 percent. Croatia saw a 46 percent increase in mortality that month.