Population age structure only partially explains the large number of COVID-19 deaths at the oldest ages

To date any attention paid to the age shape of COVID-19 deaths has been mostly in relation to attempts to understand the differences in case fatality rates between countries. The aim of this paper is to explore differences in age distribution of deaths from COVID-19 among European countries which have old age structures. We do this by way of a cross-country comparison and put forward some reasons for potential differences.