Statistics show that in 2020, there was more deaths in Italy than in any year since World War II. According to data, the death toll caused by COVID-19 is thousands more than the official attribution. 

According to the statistics agency ISTAT, the total number of deaths in Italy last year was 746,146, an increase of 100,525, or 15.6%, compared with the average during the period 2015-2019. From the outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy from February 21 to the end of this year, the number of “excess deaths” reached 108,178, an increase of 21% over the same period in the past five years. 

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy’s highest health research institute, officially attributed 75,891 deaths to the new coronavirus last year, accounting for approximately 70% of the total excess mortality. 

Italy continues to record hundreds of COVID-19 deaths every day this year. The updated data on Thursday was 98,974. 

Starting on February 21, COVID-19 officially accounted for 10% of the death toll in Italy last year, with obvious regional differences. 

This is the cause of 14.5% of all deaths in the northern region where the outbreak was first reported in Italy. In the central regions, the death toll accounted for 7% of all deaths, while in the southern regions, the death toll accounted for 5% of the total.

ISTAT said that of the 100,525 deaths last year, more than 80% of the deaths accounted for 76%, and those between the ages of 65-79 accounted for 20%.