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By the Numbers: The Spanish Flu

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