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

A coronavirus death.
(Image credit: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

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.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

China has also recently been updating its coronavirus death toll to include people who died at home or who likely died from the disease but were untested. A recent study also indicated the country's coronavirus case count could be four times what it reported.

Explore More

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.