July 30, 2025, 2:03 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
COVID-19 vaccinations, such as those from Biontech and Moderna, along with the associated vaccination mandates for travelers or restaurant-goers, divided the German population during the pandemic. About two years after the pandemic ended in 2023, there are now figures on how many lives the vaccinations actually saved.
A global data analysis led by Stanford University in the U.S. on the impact of COVID-19 vaccinations shows that between 2020 and 2024, approximately 2.5 million deaths were prevented worldwide.1 Not only that, but people gained a total of 14.8 million life years. These figures are likely to counter many vaccine skeptics, as they confirm the life-saving benefits of vaccinations against the coronavirus. But how exactly did the researchers conduct the data analysis?
How the COVID-19 Vaccination Study Was Conducted
During the roughly three-year COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023, heated debates about vaccinations took place. Among the most contentious questions were: Do the new vaccines actually help against the coronavirus? And is their benefit greater than the risk of associated side effects? Researchers at Stanford University in California aimed to find out how many lives the COVID-19 vaccinations saved.
To do this, the scientists compared the results of global vaccination strategies against SARS-CoV-2 with a scenario without vaccination. They used the best possible estimates of the infection fatality rate, the effectiveness of the vaccine in terms of mortality, and the proportion of the population likely infected before and after vaccination, as stated in the study description. They analyzed publicly available data that did not require approval from an institutional review board.
For the first time, all data from the start of vaccination campaigns at the end of 2020 to October 1, 2024, were considered. The study cohort consisted of eight billion people (the world population in 2021), divided into seven age groups.
- 0 to 19 years
- 20 to 29 years
- 30 to 39 years
- 40 to 49 years
- 50 to 59 years
- 60 to 69 years
- 70 and older
New Method to Increase the Effectiveness of the Flu Vaccine
COVID Vaccination May Also Help Against Other Life-Threatening Diseases
Older People Benefited Most from the Vaccinations
The data analysis shows that COVID-19 vaccinations saved an estimated 2.533 million lives. This equates to one death prevented per 5,400 vaccine doses. The life years gained amount to about 14.8 million, which corresponds to one life year per 900 vaccinations.
About 82 percent of the prevented deaths were among people who had been vaccinated before their first infection. Most of the lives saved (89.6 percent) were among those aged 60 and older. For children and adolescents up to 19 years old, this percentage was only 0.01 percent, which still translates to 253 children’s lives saved worldwide.
More interesting figures:
- People under 30 accounted for less than 0.5 percent of the lives saved
- Residents of long-term care facilities accounted for 11.8 percent of the prevented deaths, but contributed only two percent to the life years saved
The researchers note that sensitivity analyses, which consider various factors, showed a range of 1.4 to 4.0 million lives saved. For the life years gained, the range is 7.4 to 23.6 million.
Researchers: Overall, COVID-19 Vaccination Shows Great Benefit
According to the study authors, the estimates in this data analysis are significantly more conservative than previous calculations. Many other studies have primarily examined the effectiveness of vaccines in the first year of the vaccination campaign. Yet, even over the four-year period from 2020 to 2024, the overall benefit of COVID-19 vaccinations is evident. The greatest benefit in terms of lives and life years saved was achieved among people aged 60 and older, who, however, make up only a minority of the world’s population, the authors note.