  The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has progressed with varying degrees of
intensity in individual countries, suggesting it is important to analyse
factors that vary between them. We study measures of `population-weighted
density', which capture density as perceived by a randomly chosen individual.
These measures of population density can significantly explain variation in the
initial rate of spread of COVID-19 between countries within Europe. However,
such measures do not explain differences on a global scale, particularly when
considering countries in East Asia, or looking later into the epidemics.
Therefore, to control for country-level differences in response to COVID-19 we
consider the cross-cultural measure of individualism proposed by Hofstede. This
score can significantly explain variation in the size of epidemics across
Europe, North America, and East Asia. Using both our measure of
population-weighted density and the Hofstede score we can significantly explain
half the variation in the current size of epidemics across Europe and North
America. By controlling for country-level responses to the virus and population
density, our analysis of the global incidence of COVID-19 can help focus
attention on epidemic control measures that are effective for individual
countries.
