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General interest | Pandemic updates

How different states have experienced COVID-19 through December 31, 2023

This is an update of our analysis of state-level excess mortality data up to December 31, 2023 (data available as at February 27, 2024). COVID-19 deaths persist, but total deaths have dropped to levels broadly in line with pre-pandemic trends. Has society now adjusted to living with the virus as part of everyday life?

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Top charts

Bite-sized longevity analysis in the form of our favorite charts

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General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 24-09: Happiness and life expectancy

In this edition of Top Charts, Jill Jamieson and Erik Pickett look at the correlation between happiness and life expectancy at birth.

18 September 2024

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 24-03 – Have we seen an end to COVID waves in the US?

US population level death data is now available through the end of 2023, giving us a good overview of excess deaths progressed through the year. In this addition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett examines how weekly deaths have progressed since the beginning of the pandemic, and asks whether we’ve now seen the end of extreme COVID waves of deaths in the US.

25 March 2024

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-13: Tontine days of retirement

In this holiday-special edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett and Carmen Gatta explore which group from song the 12 days of Christmas with whom it would be best to enter a tontine contract.

3 January 2024

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-10: US cause of death by socio-economic status over time

Fresh on our return from this year’s Society of Actuaries’ ImpACT conference, we were struck by how much discussion there was around causes of death and their differing impacts by socio-economic status. In response, in this Top Chart, Natalie and Erik look at how some common causes of death differ by socio-economic status in the US and how this has changed over time.

10 November 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-07: US excess deaths in 2023

In this edition of Top Charts, Carmen Gatta and Erik Pickett discusses the drop in excess deaths since the beginning of 2023.

8 August 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-06: Are the top causes of death reflected in our search history?

There can often be a disconnect between perception and reality with regard to things that have the largest impact on our lives. But how much is this the case with causes of death? In this edition of Top Charts Mia Marcellus compares the top causes of death in our different geographies with their relative Internet search frequency.

5 July 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-04: What happened in the US in 2022?

By the start of 2022, day-to-day life in the US had largely returned to ‘normal’ with most public health precautions introduced to combat COVID-19 being dropped. With this environment, how did excess mortality in the US play out and will 2022 mortality data be representative of the future? Erik Pickett explores this issue in our latest edition of Top Charts. (For a more in depth dive into this subject, check out our recent webinar.)

24 April 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-03: Universal state retirement ages

There has recently been widespread debate across the globe (e.g. in Canada, the UK, the US and France) about potential increases in state retirement ages. Much of the debate has focused on the increases in life expectancy since the introduction of state retirement provisions – but life expectancy is not the same for everyone in society. In this edition of Top Charts, Alexandra Sonnenwirth explores this issue and asks whether it’s fair to have a one-size fits all retirement age.

30 March 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-02: Healthcare spending and longevity

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has recently introduced a series of provisions aimed at reducing the price of prescription drugs in the US. In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett and Carmen Gatta explore what this could mean for longevity and health expenditure in the US and beyond.

28 February 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-11: Total number of human lives and deaths ever

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett and Carmen Gatta look at the total number of people who have ever lived and died. Are more people alive today than have lived and died in the past?

5 December 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-08: Insulation of US DB pension plans from COVID-19

In this edition of Top Charts, Carmen Gatta takes a look at relative mortality in a large geographically concentrated pension plan in the US and compares it to the state-wide picture for excess mortality.

15 August 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-06: How have life expectancy and health adjusted life expectancy changed over time?

In this edition of Top Charts, Shantel Aris discusses life expectancy and health adjusted life expectancy (HALE) in Canada, the UK, and the US and how these have changed over time.

14 June 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-05: Retirement preparedness vs longevity pessimism

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett presents a second chart from our recent Longevity, lifestyle and retirement perception survey, 2022 showing the relationship between retirement preparedness and longevity pessimism in Canada, the UK and US.

25 May 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-04: Longevity pessimism

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett presents a chart from our recent Longevity, lifestyle and retirement perception survey, 2022 showing the level of longevity pessimism in Canada, the UK and US.

22 April 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-03: 2021 excess deaths

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett, Nick Chadwick and Shantel Aris look at excess deaths in 2021 in the UK, US and Canada compared to historical levels.

15 March 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 21-11: Antibiotic use in meat production

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett looks at the levels of antibiotic use in meat production in different countries around the world.

30 November 2021

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 21-08: Longevity trends in US Defined Benefit pension plans

In this edition of Top Charts Chuyi Yang looks at the difference in recent mortality improvements between the US population and Defined Benefit pension participants.

19 August 2021

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 21-07: World records, 100m sprint vs life expectancy

Inspired by the start of the Tokyo Olympic games, in this edition of Top Charts Nick Chadwick and Erik Pickett compare the progression of world records for the 100m sprint and for life expectancy at birth.

23 July 2021

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 21-05: Widening inequality in life expectancy in the US

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett, looks at the implications of recent Society of Actuaries research into the widening of life expectancy inequality in the US.

26 May 2021

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 21-02: Excess deaths in the US: 2020 compared to history

In this edition of Top Charts, Chuyi Yang looks at excess deaths in the US and compares the extreme experience in 2020 to previous years back to 1933.

22 February 2021

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 20-11: US COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett looks at the relationship between case numbers, hospitalization rates and deaths caused by COVID-19.

16 November 2020

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 20-10: COVID-19 compared to other leading causes of death

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett examines how the numbers of COVID-19 deaths compare to other leading causes of death in the UK, US and Canada.

30 October 2020

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 20-08: Life expectancy doesn’t tell the whole story

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett explains why there's more than meets the eye when it comes to life expectancy.

28 August 2020

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 20-05: US 2020 cumulative deaths

In this edition of Top Charts, Dan Reddy discusses the effect COVID-19 is having on 2020 cumulative deaths.

15 May 2020

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 20-02: US cancer improvements

In this edition of Top Charts US, Erik Pickett asks whether cancer mortality has been improving in the US in recent years?

24 February 2020

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 19-12: How harsh are the winters in Canada, the UK and the US?

In this edition of Top Charts International, Richard Brown, Erik Pickett and Daniel Reddy discuss whether more people die in the winter than in the summer.

17 December 2019

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 19-10: Mortality inequality in the US

In this edition of Top Charts US, Erik Pickett presents a chart exploring the mortality gap between rich and poor.

15 October 2019

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 19-04: Grieving widow effect

In this edition Longevity Consultant Erik Pickett presents a chart exploring the so-called “grieving widow effect”.

18 April 2019

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 18-10: Life Expectancy Trends Around the World

In this edition Longevity Consultant, Nick Chadwick, takes a closer look at recent changes in life expectancy in different countries around the globe.

23 October 2018

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 18-09: Balancing value and risk when insuring sub-groups of pensioners

In this edition Longevity Modeler, Chuyi Yang, looks at the benefits of individual assumptions when assessing the value of longevity insurance for sub-groups of pension plan participants.

14 September 2018