The U.S. has administered by far the most vaccines of any country
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The United States has 4% of the world's population, 20% of all recorded COVID-19 deaths, and nearly 30% of all vaccine doses administered to date, according to Our World in Data.
The big picture: The U.S. and United Kingdom, both devastated by the pandemic, have sprinted far out ahead of other large countries in terms of vaccine rollout.
- The EU, Canada, and other wealthy western countries have struggled to ramp up their vaccine supplies.
- The U.S., which has the one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturing capacities, has been far more successful.
Meanwhile Japan and South Korea, two rich countries that were hit less hard, have hardly started their vaccination campaigns. The delays are due to a combination of lower urgency, cautious governments and skeptical publics.
- Half of South Koreans, for example, say they'd rather wait to see how vaccinations go elsewhere before getting a jab themselves, per the Economist.
- China has also moved much more slowly than the U.S.,
Most African countries and many low-income countries in Asia and the Americas have yet to administer a single dose, not due to a lack of urgency, but to a lack of access.
Go deeper: America's vaccine rollout has been among the best in the world
