By the Numbers: The Spanish Flu
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500 million
Number of people infected with the H1N1 flu virus (the Spanish flu) in 1918: one-third of the world’s population
50 million
Number of deaths traced to that outbreak worldwide
675,000
Number of deaths in the United States traced to that outbreak
2 percent
Mortality rate of the 1918 flu virus
12
Number of years that the average life expectancy was decreased in the United States because of Spanish flu deaths
72
Number of adults in the Village of Brevig Mission, Alaska – out of 80 total adult residents – who died from the Spanish flu between Nov. 15 and Nov. 20, 1918
1 million
Number of deaths worldwide due to flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968
300,000
Number of deaths traced to the 2009 flu pandemic
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention