5x is order of magnitude larger. Quote:

Generally, the order of magnitude of a number is the smallest power of 10 used to represent that number.[2] To work out the order of magnitude of a number N, the number is first expressed in the following form:

    N = a × 10^b

where 1/sqrt(10) ≤ a < sqrt(10) . Then, b represents the order of magnitude of the number.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_magnitude

> the US has more deaths per capita than Sweden

Nothing to be proud about for either of them. Anyway, until e.g. month ago Sweden had the lead.

Just checked: it seems the last day the U.S. was better than Sweden in deaths per capita was 11. September, so just 8 days ago. And, when the trends continue, in a week the U.S. will be worse than the U.K. too. The only countries in Europe with more Covid-19 deaths per million then will be Belgium and Spain.

If I recall correctly the US passed Sweden in excess mortality sometime in June/July. So they have probably passed some of the other European countries already. I couldn't find a good up to date source, but Belgium seems to have lower excess than US. Comparing death statistics is not trivial.

Anyways, I don't think comparing the US to most countries in Europe really makes sense, considering the size and population differences.

> If I recall correctly the US passed Sweden in excess mortality sometime in June/July.

According to ourworldindata, in reported Covid-19 deaths per million, on Sept 12:

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToS...

> I don't think comparing the US to most countries in Europe really makes sense

You are missing "per million" which is what I used. Comparing absolute numbers has of course no sense. When comparing relative numbers ("per million"), the big country spread across big area, like U.S. is, would be expected have huge advantages compared to any country in Europe (due to slower spread over the distances, much less dependency on public transportation). Moreover, the countries worst hit in Europe were only those where the spread happened first -- others took note and introduced measures early enough. Not the U.S. which totally botched its response even ignoring the initial hit in NY. Compare the slopes of all other European countries for months, v.s. what's going on in the U.S. The response in the U.S. is criminally bad, and continues to be so -- and not looking at the "cases" but simply and tragically, deaths. Those that are reported.

I admit that comparing some other estimates of "excess deaths" could give some other numbers, but I don't see any way in which U.S. can look good, especially as it was Italy being hit the first and everybody else having the time to react somehow.

Also see daily average of deaths per million, to get the idea how bad it is still:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-deaths-per-mi...