COVID-19 Cases and Case Fatality Rate by age

The report provides a comparison of cases and fatalities of COVID-19 by age and by provinces and regions in some of the most affected countries. The main objective of the comparison is to evaluate possible effects of the demographic characteristics of population on the epidemic outcomes. The analysis is preliminary since it is based on constantly evolving data while the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding. Age distributions are presented by large age classes and using estimated values for harmonised 5-year age groups. In addition to Case Fatality Rates, we calculate three main indicators: Synthetic CFR, Relative Illness Ratio and Relative Mortality Ratio. Finally, we examine the relation between the geographical patterns of cases and fatalities and the demographic profiles of the population. The distribution of both cases and fatalities across ages shows several anomalies. However our findings seem to exclude the fact that an older population alone may justify the high number of fatalities recorded in particular in the case of Italy.