Circulatory diseases – main cause of death in 2022

In 2022, there were 5.16 million deaths among EU residents; the main causes of death across the EU were circulatory diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases.

Over 1.68 million deaths were caused by circulatory diseases (32.7% of all deaths). Cancer was the second most common cause, with 1.15 million (22.3%) and respiratory diseases came third with 0.36 million (7.0%). 

Other leading causes of death in 2022 were COVID-19 (0.31 million; 6.0%), external causes of morbidity and mortality (0.24 million; 4.7%), diseases of the digestive system (0.22 million; 4.2%), diseases of the nervous system (0.21 million; 4.1%), mental and behavioural disorders (0.21 million; 4.1%) and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (0.18 million; 3.5%). 

Source dataset: hlth_cd_aro

This information comes from data on causes of death published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on causes of death.