This study evaluated the distribution of COVID-19-related fatalities by age groups in Europe as of April 6, 2020. Their finding that people under 40 years of age represent a small fraction of the total number of COVID-19-related deaths in Europe may guide future physical distancing and mitigation strategies.

Early data have indicated that older patients are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than younger ones, but precise international estimates of the age-breakdown of COVID-19-related deaths are lacking.

On April 6, 2020, the authors systematically reviewed COVID-19-related mortality data from European countries (European Union/European Economic Area and the United Kingdom). They used random-effects meta-analysis to estimate the proportion of age groups among all COVID-19-related fatalities.

They included 13 European countries, for a total of 31,864 COVID-19-related deaths (range: 27-14,381 per country). In the main meta-analysis (including data from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland; 21,522 COVID-19-related fatalities), the summary proportions of persons <40; 40, 40-69, and ≥ 70 years of age among all COVID-19-related deaths were 0.1% (0.0-0.2%; I2 24%), 12.8% (10.3-15.6%; I2 94%), and 84.8% (81.3-88.1%; I2 96%), respectively. \