Table 2

Correlation between the standardised mortality rates for COVID-19 in the European Union/European Economic Area countries plus the UK and Switzerland and selected indicators

Variable	First wave Spearman’s rho correlation (95% CI)	P value	Subsequent waves Spearman’s rho correlation (95% CI)	P value	P value of the difference between first and subsequent waves
HDI	0.41 (0.14 to 0.68)	0.02	−0.67 (−0.87 to −0.46)	<0.0001	0.000003
Life expectancy at birth	0.46 (0.14 to 0.77)	0.01	−0.56 (−0.79 to −0.33)	0.001	0.00002
Poverty and social exclusion	0.04 (−0.32 to 0.41)	0.82	0.25 (−0.15 to 0.66)	0.17	0.42
HLY	0.36 (−0.02 to 0.73)	0.05	−0.20 (−0.54 to 0.13)	0.27	0.03
Density	0.33 (−0.03 to 0.68)	0.07	0.17 (−0.24 to 0.57)	0.37	0.52
Urbanisation	0.30 (−0.06 to 0.67)	0.10	−0.51 (−0.77 to −0.24)	0.004	0.0011
Hospital beds*	−0.28 (−0.62 to 0.06)	0.13	–	–	–
ICU beds*	−0.16 (−0.48 to 0.15)	0.38	–	–	–
Healthcare expenditure	0.49 (0.22 to 0.76)	0.005	−0.47 (−0.70 to −0.24)	0.008	0.00009
Stringency Index	0.40 (0.09 to 0.70)	0.03	−0.03 (−0.40 to 0.33)	0.85	0.09
Mobility retail and recreation	−0.51 (−0.86 to −0.15)	0.005	−0.31 (−0.68 to 0.06)	0.10	0.38
Mobility transit	−0.66 (−0.90 to −0.43)	0.0001	0.50 (0.17 to 0.83)	0.006	0.000001
Mobility outdoor	−0.40 (−0.72 to −0.07)	0.03	−0.37 (−0.72 to −0.03)	0.05	0.90
Total tests per 1000	0.16 (−0.22 to 0.54)	0.42	−0.24(−0.63 to 0.16)	0.22	0.15
New tests per 1000	0.24 (−0.16 to 0.64)	0.22	−0.25 (−0.69 to 0.20)	0.22	0.94
Tourism	0.52 (0.21 to 0.83)	0.004	0.07 (−0.29 to 0.44)	0.71	0.07

Bold values denote statistical significance at the p ≤ 0.005 level.
*Data were not available for the subsequent waves.
HDI, Human Development Index; HLY, healthy life years; ICU, intensive care units.