Estimated Disease Burden of COVID-19
To better reflect the burden of COVID-19 – the full impact of the disease — CDC provides estimates of COVID-19 infections, symptomatic illnesses, and hospitalizations using a statistical model to adjust for cases that national surveillance networks are unable to capture for a number of reasons. These estimates and the methodology used to calculate them are published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available onlineexternal icon. These estimates will be updated periodically.
Estimated COVID-19 Infections, Symptomatic Illnesses, and Hospitalizations—United States
CDC estimates that from February–December 2020:
These estimates suggest that during that period, there were approximately:
83.1 Million
Estimated Total Infections
70.4 Million
Estimated Symptomatic Illnesses
4.1 Million
Estimated Hospitalizations
Last Updated†: January 15, 2021
* Since the previous update, CDC has received additional data about the proportion of persons with symptomatic illness who seek medical attention or COVID-19 testing services, one of the sources of under-detection accounted for in these estimates. These updated data indicated higher levels of health-seeking behavior than data included in our previous estimates. The higher values of health-seeking behavior result in lower estimates of infections, symptomatic illnesses, and hospitalizations than previously reported. CDC will continue to update these preliminary estimates as additional data become available and improve our understanding of the detection and reporting of COVID-19..
Infections | Symptomatic Illness | Hospitalizations | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age group | Estimate | 95% UI* | Estimate | 95% UI* | Estimate | 95% UI* |
0-4 yrs | 3,001,623 | 2,521,479 – 3,603,759 |
2,558,307 | 2,278,108 – 2,906,556 |
37,230 | 30,699 – 44,730 |
5-17 yrs | 14,550,829 | 12,209,186 – 17,452,081 |
12,403,731 | 11,034,478 – 14,117,103 |
100,007 | 79,372 – 124,320 |
18-49 yrs | 41,940,215 | 35,078,060 – 50,555,701 |
35,787,079 | 31,531,715 – 40,807,745 |
1,063,736 | 900,113 – 1,271,347 |
50-64 yrs | 14,447,134 | 12,089,524 – 17,383,362 |
12,321,758 | 10,882,714 – 14,055,391 |
1,018,159 | 896,371 – 1,162,730 |
65+ yrs | 9,039,683 | 7,276,479 – 11,399,503 |
7,327,183 | 6,503,774 – 8,324,056 |
1,883,794 | 1,656,765 – 2,163,710 |
All ages | 83,111,629 | 71,639,264 – 97,219,850 |
70,421,695 | 63,136,089 – 79,082,817 |
4,101,022 | 3,657,416 – 4,654,724 |
* Adjusted estimates and rates are presented in two parts: an uncertainty interval [UI] and a point estimate. The uncertainty interval provides a range in which the true number or rate of COVID-19 infections, symptomatic illnesses, or hospitalization would be expected to fall if the same study was repeated many times, and it gives an idea of the precision of the point estimate. A 95% uncertainty interval means that if the study were repeated 100 times, then 95 out of 100 times the uncertainty interval would contain the true point estimate. Conversely, in only 5 times out of a 100 would the uncertainty interval not contain the true point estimate.
Infection rate per 100,000 | Symptomatic Illness rate per 100,000 | Hospitalization rate per 100,000 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age group | Estimate | 95% UI* | Estimate | 95% UI* | Estimate | 95% UI* |
0-4 yrs | 15,333 | 12,880 – 18,408 | 13,068 | 11,637 – 14,847 | 190 | 157 – 228 |
5-17 yrs | 27,218 | 22,837 – 32,644 | 23,201 | 20,640 – 26,406 | 187 | 148 – 233 |
18-49 yrs | 30,602 | 25,595 – 36,888 | 26,112 | 23,007 – 29,776 | 776 | 657 – 928 |
50-64 yrs | 22,966 | 19,218 – 27,634 | 19,588 | 17,300 – 22,343 | 1,619 | 1,425 – 1,848 |
65+ yrs | 16,722 | 13,460 – 21,087 | 13,554 | 12,031 – 15,398 | 3,485 | 3,065 – 4,003 |
All ages | 25,412 | 21,905 – 29,726 | 21,532 | 19,305 – 24,180 | 1,254 | 1,118 – 1,423 |
* Adjusted estimates and rates are presented in two parts: an uncertainty interval [UI] and a point estimate. The uncertainty interval provides a range in which the true number or rate of COVID-19 infections, symptomatic illnesses, or hospitalization would be expected to fall if the same study was repeated many times, and it gives an idea of the precision of the point estimate. A 95% uncertainty interval means that if the study were repeated 100 times, then 95 out of 100 times the uncertainty interval would contain the true point estimate. Conversely, in only 5 times out of a 100 would the uncertainty interval not contain the true point estimate.