Seeing the scale: Visualizing the 100,000 American coronavirus deaths
The number of people who died of COVID-19 is immense. This is how it looks alongside other U.S. health crises, wars and catastrophes that have killed thousands.
By Jiachuan Wu, Nigel Chiwaya and Robin Muccari
June 2, 2020
It’s nearly a World War I-sized death toll.
The more than 116,000 U.S. soldiers who died more than a century ago is close to how many Americans have been killed so far by COVID-19 since the disease and the coronavirus that causes it arrived in the United States.
The death toll, 104,869 as of 10:30 a.m. June 1, is greater than the populations of more than 2,500 counties across the country and stands as sobering evidence of the deadly nature of the novel coronavirus.
In only four months this year, more Americans died of COVID-19 than those who died of diabetes in all of 2018.
Here are a few ways to understand the staggering death count.
104,869 Americans have died of COVID-19.
Each dot here represents 25 people.
Reported deaths from the disease accelerated in April, driven by more than 20,000 deaths in New York. Deaths peaked the third week of April, when more than 18,000 people were reported dead.
On average, more than 1,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 every day during the pandemic, as of June 1.
The coronavirus initially drew comparisons to the seasonal flu. But COVID-19's daily death rate is more than three times higher than even the harsh 2017 flu season, which killed 61,000 people.
And COVID-19's daily death rate is more than 10 times that of car crash fatalities in 2018.
2,977 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. As of now, the daily average of COVID-19 deaths equal that total every three days.
Also worth comparing: The toll of the wars the United States has fought, and the major health issues that claim the lives of Americans.
| Deaths | Average deaths per day | |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. deaths in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic | 675,000 | 1,383 |
| U.S. soldier deaths in World War I | 116,516 | 199 |
| U.S. soldier deaths in World War II | 405,399 | 301 |
| U.S. heart disease deaths, 2017 | 647,457 | 1772 |
| U.S. cancer deaths, 2017 | 599,108 | 1,641 |
Sources: NBC News and U.S. Census Bureau