Since 1900 there have been at least five viral epidemics or pandemics in the United States. The death toll varies and in some cases is disputed. To place these deaths in context it is important to know the population at the time and show deaths as a percentage of the population. In the context of population death percentage, the 1918 influenza pandemic was twenty-two times worse than the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 (to date). This following list applies to the United States only:
- 1918 H1N1 virus kills 0.6540% of the population (675,000 of 103,210,000).
- 1957 H2N2 virus kills 0.0674% of the population (116,000 of 171,980,000).
- 1968 H3N2 virus kills 0.0498% of the population (100,000 of 200,710,000).
- 2009 H1N1 virus kills 0.0041% of the population (12,469 of 306,770,000).
- 2019 COVID-19 virus kills 0.0293% of the population (96,537 of 329,460,000) as of 19 may 2020.
Sources: United Stated Census and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.