COVID-19 – Top 10 countries compared in charts

The big question is which figure is a more realistic representation of today’s picture of each country?

Each figure we’ll look at compares the top 10 countries with the most confirmed coronavirus cases to date.

The plot begins when each country hits 1 confirmed coronavirus case per million residents. As you can see the United States is on day 15 since the first case per million residents.

The population-adjusted numbers show the spread of the virus as a function of population size. While China falls the lowest in the plot when adjusted for its population you’ll see below it is the highest in total number of cases.

Here is the same plot as the 1st plot just without correcting for population size. You can see that this paints a very different picture with the United States at the 2nd highest number of cases at this point in its curve.

Zooming out to 30 days you can see that the United States is growing quickly early on in its curve, far more so than any other country in the world except China.

John Burn-Murdoch, a data/stats journalist who has become popular for his visualizations of coronaviruses through time, argues that while adjusting for population may show the relative strain on a country, the growth of the virus should be independent of the size of the country.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story @ Population Adjusted Coronavirus Cases: Top 10 Countries Compared