No abstract

Europe experienced excess mortality from February through June, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with more COVID-19-associated deaths in males compared to females. However, a difference in excess mortality among females compared to among males may be a more general phenomenon, and should be investigated in none-COVID-19 situations as well. Based on death counts from Eurostat, separate excess mortalities were estimated for each of the sexes using the EuroMOMO model. Sex-differential excess mortality were expressed as differences in excess mortality incidence rates between the sexes. A general relation between sex-differential and overall excess mortality both during the COVID-19 pandemic and in preceding seasons were investigated. Data from 27 European countries were included, covering the seasons 2016/17 to 2019/20. In periods with increased excess mortality, excess was consistently highest among males. From February through May 2020 male excess mortality was 52.7 (95% PI: 56.29; 49.05) deaths per 100,000 person years higher than for females. Increased male excess mortality compared to female was also observed in the seasons 2016/17 to 2018/19. We found a linear relation between sex-differences in excess mortality and overall excess mortality, i.e., 40 additional deaths among males per 100 excess deaths per 100,000 population. This corresponds to an overall female/male mortality incidence ratio of 0.7. In situations with overall excess mortality, excess mortality increases more for males than females. We suggest that the sex-differences observed during the COVID-19 pandemic reflects a general sex-disparity in excess mortality.

International Comparability of Population Statistics is EssentialCounting the population is probably the oldest statistical activity, but it remains as important as ever. The population of interest has, however, been changing over time, from the count of men able to draw a sword, to potential tax payers, and so on. Whenever there is a discussion of population statistics, it is therefore important to be clear about the population to which the statistical evidence applies. During the past century, three main definitions of population have played a major role: the population present (also known as de facto population), the de jure population, and the usually resident population, these latter two definitions being often confused as synonymous. While the United Nations international recommendations for population censuses still put these definitions on an almost equal footing, in Europe -particularly in the European Union -there has been a wider adoption of the definition based on usual residence, even if it is sometimes implemented in different forms, such as using legal or registered residence instead of the place of daily rest.These definitions are -each with its own strengths and weaknesses -fit for purpose when the ultimate aim is the allocation of each and every individual to a single geographic territory. This is achieved either by capturing the place where the person is at the reference time (de facto population) or by looking at ongoing connections with the territory, In the case of usual residence, that is objectively assessed by means of a duration of stay of at least one year. This latter approach has been confirmed in the latest review by the UN Statistical Commission, the highest body in the world of official statistics. In its 52nd Session in March 2021, it endorsed a revision of the main definitions for the UN recommendations on international migration based again on a duration of stay of at least 12 months. This outcome, which, like other international recommendations in this domain, is likely to hold for several years -if not decades -has direct implications for the definition of population. Population and migration statistics are intrinsically intertwined: in its simplest interpretation, migration is the act of joining or leaving a population other than by a vital event. Consequently, the statistical rules that define the entry or exit from a population, that is, a migration, must be the same as those defining the population itself. If a person is a member of the population of a given territory because (s)he has had the place of daily rest in that geographic area for not less than 12 months, then any other person should be considered a new member of that population only once their place of daily rest is within the same territory for the same minimal duration of stay -and vice versa.Even though the 'usually resident population' is a definition privileged only in relatively recent times, it is sometimes argued that it does not capture a comprehensive picture of q Statistics Sweden Acknowledgments: The...