STA, 7 February 2022 - Slovenia recorded an excess mortality rate of 15% last year, when the Covid-19 epidemic was in full swing, the Statistics Office said on Monday. The worst month of 2021 was November, when 49% more people died than the average for the same period in 2015-2019.
The excess mortality rate represents the excess of the number of deaths over the average number of deaths in previous years during the same period, the Statistics Office explained.
According to provisional data, a total of 23,177 people died in Slovenia in 2021, which is 2,589 more than in 2019 - before the outbreak of the coronavirus, but 839 (3%) fewer than in 2020.
The year before last was when the Covid-19 epidemic was at its worse in Slovenia, as the excess mortality rate was even higher than last year at almost 19%, with a total of 24,016 deaths recorded in 2020.
However, very high excess mortality was also recorded in November 2021, at almost 50%, followed by January and December 2021, at 28%.
In December last year, 2,287 people died in Slovenia, which is 951 fewer than in December 2020 and 419 more than in the same month in 2019. On average, 74 people died per day in December 2021.
A total of 1507 people aged 75 or over died in December last year, which accounts for 66% of the total number of deaths in that month. Compared to the average number of deaths in the same age group in 2015-2019, this number was 27% higher.
