The U.S. has a quarter of the world's confirmed coronavirus deaths despite having less than 5 percent of its population

(Image credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

published 24 April 2020

Americans are disproportionately dying from COVID-19, at least according to current statistics.

The U.S.'s coronavirus death toll surpassed 50,000 on Friday, with 15,000 of those deaths coming from New York state. That means the U.S. has been home to more than a quarter of the world's 192,000 deaths from COVID-19 despite the U.S. only making up about 4.25 percent of the world's population, writes The Washington Post's Greg Miller.

It's important to note that it's hard to put a number on fatalities from a disease that has lacked widespread testing. U.S. municipalities have only recently started counting probable coronavirus deaths among their official tolls, while other countries haven't done the same. The New York Times recently estimated there are likely at least 25,000 additional deaths around the globe that can be attributed to COVID-19, whether those people died of the disease itself or because they didn't go to a hospital to receive medical care for another issue.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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