This diagram compares crude and age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates across racial and ethnic groups in the United States. What stands out to me is how much the disparities change after age is considered. For example, Black and white Americans have similar crude mortality rates, but after age adjustment, the mortality rate for Black Americans is considerably higher than the rate for white Americans. Latino Americans also show a large difference, increasing from 281 deaths per 100,000 before adjustment to 513 after adjustment.
This comparison demonstrates why examining only raw or crude mortality rates can give an incomplete picture. Because racial and ethnic groups have different age distributions and COVID-19 mortality risk increases with age, age-adjusted rates provide a more meaningful comparison between groups. Overall, the visualization shows that Indigenous, Latino, Pacific Islander, and Black Americans experienced disproportionately high COVID-19 mortality when age differences are taken into account.