A year ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The microscopic coronavirus has somehow changed the lives of all 7.8 billion people on earth.
While the long-term impact of this global health crisis may take years to understand, its immediate effect has already changed the world as we know it. In the following information we contain the latest figures and reports to help you understand the global consequences of the pandemic.
For each topic, we looked at the most complete and reliable datasets available worldwide. The numbers are often presented as averages in a country, so it is important to remember that averages can hide inequalities, especially when dealing with sub-areas or populations at risk.
Top causes of death
At least 2.7 million people worldwide have died from COVID-19. While the biggest global causes of death for 2020 have not yet been published, compared to 2019, COVID ranks among the top five killers.
In 2019, 55.4 million people around the world will die. Heart disease killed the most people (8.9 million) followed by strokes (6.2 million) and lung diseases (3.2 million). Collectively, they are known as non-communicable diseases, which means that they are not transmitted between people. In contrast, the highly contagious coronavirus is a communicable disease.
The image below shows how one year coronavirus deaths are compared to the main causes of deaths in 2019.
In the US, the country with the most COVID-19 deaths, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the coronavirus killed more Americans in one year (540,000) than the flu combined in the past ten years (368,000 ).
Mental health
The WHO estimates that nearly one billion people worldwide suffer from a mental disorder. In 2019, 703,000 people took their own lives, making suicide the 17th most common cause of death. Nevertheless, countries spend only about 2 percent of their national health budgets on mental health.
The UN has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cause a prolonged increase in the number and severity of mental health problems. The evidence regarding the mental health consequences of lockouts and social distance is still being studied. Although we have no large-scale data on the effects that COVID-19 has had on mental health worldwide, several smaller studies (PDF) indicate that your anxiety and depression are higher.
Below are five tips by Dr Devora Kestel, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the WHO, on protecting our mental health.
Global locks
By definition, a pandemic is a worldwide spread of a disease. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of the world’s population has experienced lock-in measures, lasting from weeks to months.
According to data compiled by the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, more than 100 countries and territories have reinstated home orders by 2021, with a few exceptions such as for essential travel, daily exercise or shopping.
The image below summarizes the duration of nationwide closures over 12 months (16 January 2020 – 15 January 2021).
Trillions wiped out
According to World Bank estimates, the world economy will shrink by 4.3 percent in 2020, wiping out trillions of dollars. Countries that have already experienced economic problems have fallen further into debt. A report by Oxfam International estimates that it could take more than a decade before the world’s poorest people recover from the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the upside, the World Bank expects the world economy to expand by 4 percent in 2021 with the rollout of vaccines and investments leading the recovery.
The image below shows the impact that COVID-19 has had on the world economy. Every major economy except China has shrunk over the course of 2020. Other countries that have seen their gross domestic product (GDP) grow include Bangladesh (2%), Benin (2%), Burundi (0.3%), Egypt (3.6%), Ethiopia (6.1% ), Ghana (1.1%), Guinea (5.2%), Guyana (23.2%), Ivory Coast (1.8%), Myanmar (1.7%), Nepal (0.2%), Niger (1%), South Sudan (9.3%), Tajikistan (2.2%), Tanzania (2.5%), Turkey (0.5%), Uzbekistan (0.6%) and Vietnam (2 , 8%).
This in no way indicates that these countries were better off after the coronavirus. On the contrary, several of these countries were predicted to achieve even higher growth before the pandemic, while several others relied on loans to boost their economies.
Global poverty and unemployment
The coronavirus has affected the poor excessively. For the first time in 20 years, global poverty is likely to increase significantly. The World Bank estimates that the coronavirus has pushed between 119 and 124 million more people into extreme poverty. That brings the total number of people living from less than $ 1.90 a day to 730 million, which is about 10 percent of the world population.
In 2020, 114 million people lost their jobs, according to the latest unemployment figures from the International Labor Organization (ILO). But just looking at official unemployment figures is not enough to measure unemployment. As the ILO noted, many more workers have fallen into ‘economic inactivity’. This means that they had to withdraw from the labor force. Many more can be employed, but they work with reduced working hours or savings.
Women and younger workers have been hit hardest, raising concerns about rising gender inequality and a lost generation of workers.
In addition, the United Nations Development Program has warned that almost half of all jobs in Africa could be wiped out by the pandemic.
The rich got richer
A report (PDF) released by Oxfam International, a UK charity, says the pandemic has hurt people living in poverty far more than the rich. The hardest hit are women, black people, descendants of Africa, indigenous peoples and historically marginalized and oppressed communities around the world, the report said.
To put income equality into perspective, a report by Swiss bank UBS found that the richest people in the world saw their wealth increase by $ 3.9 billion between March and December 2020. The ten richest billionaires had their wealth increased by $ 540 billion during this time.
Many of the richest men in the world, including Elon Musk (USA), Zhong Shanshan (China) and Mukesh Ambani (India), have more than doubled their wealth since the pandemic was declared.
1.7 billion students out of school
According to UNESCO, the closure of schools and universities has disrupted the education of more than 1.7 billion students from 188 countries, or about 99 percent of the world’s population.
Today, nearly 900 million students, more than half the world population of students, experience serious disruptions in education, ranging from school closures in 29 countries to fewer or part-time classes in 68 others, according to the latest UNESCO data.
While online education could play out, classes could virtually continue, the UN estimates that nearly 500 million children, particularly in poorer countries or rural areas, have been excluded from distance education due to a lack of technology or policy.
Oxfam estimates that the pandemic will reverse the last 20 years of global advances in girls’ education, further increasing poverty and inequality.
The worst year for air travel
In 2019, more than 4.5 billion passengers worldwide undertook 38 million flights. With closures and quarantines for most of 2020, many travel plans have been canceled or postponed.
International passenger demand in 2020 fell by 75.6 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association, compared to 2019.
The global flight tracking service Flightradar24 also recorded a 42 percent drop in commercial flights from 2019. Many airlines were forced to operate only cargo flights to keep supermarket shelves in stock and fulfill online orders.
Exclusions from space
On the left, photos taken before lock-up were contrasted with closing images taken in March 2020 to show the pandemic’s effect on cities worldwide. Unprecedented closures emptied streets, disrupted travel and slowed economic activity – temporarily reducing air pollution.
Below we see how Mecca, Wuhan and Venice all saw a sharp decline in visitors within the pandemic. See satellite images from more cities here.
Pollution levels
In the first weeks of COVID exclusions, there were reports of clearer and less polluted air. Residents of Venice, Italy, for example, for the first time in years, reported running water in its normally operating canals.
However, it seems to have been of short duration. A recent report by the International Energy Agency found that although global energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 5.8 percent in 2020 – the largest annual decline since World War II – the latest data shows that global CO2 pollution dropped back to the pre-COVID levels.
Professor Ralph Keeling, head of the Scripps CO2 program, explained the situation in May 2020: “People will be surprised to hear that the response to the coronavirus outbreak has no longer affected CO2 levels. The buildup of CO2 is a bit like garbage at a landfill. If we keep radiating, stop it. ”
