Estimating excess mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand: Addendum

TL;DR

This paper updates previous estimates of excess mortality in New Zealand during 2020-2023 using revised population data, confirming that the original conclusions remain valid despite the new estimates being slightly higher.

Contribution

It provides an updated analysis of excess mortality estimates using revised population data, demonstrating the robustness of previous findings.

Findings

Updated excess mortality estimate of 2.0% with 95% CI [0.5%, 3.3%]

New population estimates increased the excess mortality percentage by 1.3 points

Main conclusions of the original study remain unchanged

Abstract

In our previous article, we estimated excess mortality during in Aotearoa New Zealand for 2020 to 2023. Since our work was published, updated population estimates have been released by Statistics NZ. In this short letter, we provide the results of applying our original model to the new population data. Our updated excess mortality estimate of 2.0% (95% CI [0.5%, 3.3%]) is 1.3 percentage points higher than our original estimate because the new population estimates for the period 2020 to 2023 are smaller, but the main conclusions of our original article still apply.