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Death statistic according to cause of death. Year 2023. Provisional data

In 2023, the leading cause of death was tumours, which accounted for 26.6% of the total number of deaths. Reported deaths due to diseases of the circulatory system decreased by 5.3% compared to 2022, ranking as the second most frequent cause of death, with 26.5% of the total. In addition, deaths due to COVID-19 decreased by 75.1% compared to 2022 and accounted for 1.8% of all deaths.

Deaths according to the most frequent cause of death. - Provisional Data 2023
Indicator Note Total Men Women Annual variation. Total Annual variation. Men Annual variation. Women
Total deaths 433,163 219,077 214,086 -6.7 -6.5 -6.9
Ischaemic heart diseases 27,203 17,038 10,165 -6.4 -5.2 -8.3
Cerebrovascular diseases 23,173 10,356 12,817 -6.1 -4.5 -7.4
Bronchial and lung cancer 22,717 16,503 6,214 0.0 -1.5 4.2
Dementia 21,084 6,859 14,225 -3.7 -2.5 -4.2
Heart failure 19,107 7,849 11,258 -7.2 -4.0 -9.3
  • Annual percentage change from 2022 final data

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Did you know...?

The Death statistics according to cause of death constitutes one of the most important sources of information in the field of healthcare. It is conducted following the criteria established by the WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which covers over 12,000 diseases.

Data on causes of death is collected in three questionnaires: Medical Death Certificate/Statistical Death Bulletin, Statistical Legal Death Bulletin and the Statistical Birth Bulletin, in addition to the information provided directly by the Institutes of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences .

These statistics offer information on mortality according to the underlying cause of death, distribution by sex, age, residence and the month of death. It also offers indicators which facilitate carrying out geographical comparisons and measuring premature mortality: standardised rates of mortality and potential years of lost life. Since 2012, the education level variable has been included in the statistics on deaths.

For the first time, in the publication of 2016 deaths, tables that interrelate the multiple causes and the underlying cause are presented.