Heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases of the circulatory system are the most common cause of death in the European Union, killing two in every five people each year and more than half of those aged over 85.
The findings are from the latest survey into causes of death by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. However, the survey, Atlas on Mortality in the European Union which used data for 2001-3, shows major differences in causes of death between countries and across age groups.
Poisoning and external causes of injury, such as road crashes, are the main cause of death among men and boys aged 19 years or under. At 18 deaths per 100 000 people each year, this is 2.4 times the rate in the corresponding female group.
The countries with the highest proportions of deaths caused by transport crashes are Slovakia (19 deaths per 100 000 people), Lithuania (16), and Latvia (15). At the other end of the scale come Sweden (five per 100 000) and the United Kingdom and the Netherlands (six).
Suicide is the second highest external cause of death among those in the ≤19s and the 20-44 age groups. In the first group it accounts for 14% of deaths from external causes among men and 10% among women. In the older group the respective figures are 31% and 32%.
The data show large geographical disparities. The frequency of suicide among 20-44 year olds is lower in southern Europe: five deaths per 100 000 in Greece, 10 in Italy, 11 in Malta, 12 in Spain, and 13 in Portugal. The highest figures for suicide are in northeastern Europe: in Finland (43 deaths per 100 000), Latvia (54), Estonia (55), and Lithuania (90).
In the 45-64 years age group malignant neoplasms are the main cause of death (41% of deaths), followed by diseases of the circulatory system. Numbers of deaths from breast cancer among women were particularly high in the Netherlands (60 per 100 000), the Flemish part of Belgium (64), and Denmark (66) and were low in Spain (38), Greece (38), and Finland (40).
The commonest causes of death among 65-84 year olds are diseases of the circulatory system, including ischaemic heart disease. The survey estimated that almost one million people a year in the EU died from these diseases. The highest figures were in Hungary (2786 deaths per 100 000), Estonia (2881), Slovakia (2970), and Latvia (3061). The lowest were in France (869), Spain (1021), and Italy (1178). This was also the commonest cause of death among people aged over 85.
The survey found that mortality in the 15 older EU member countries (members before 2004) as well as Cyprus, Malta, and Slovenia was close to or below the overall European average mortality but that Hungary and Poland had excess mortality, particularly among those aged ≥35. Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia had very high excess mortality among people aged up to 64 years, while Slovakia had high excess mortality among those aged ≤14 and those aged 30-64 and the Czech Republic among those aged ≥45.