Thanks to the development of medicine and more frequent preventive examinations, the average life expectancy in EU countries is currently more than 80 years. However, there are diseases that significantly shorten the lives of Europeans. The most common cause of death for residents of EU countries who died before the age of 65 is cancer. Also, a significant share of deaths is caused by diseases of the cardiovascular system.
According to the report Eurostat, the cause of death of 40.6% of all women in the EU who died before the age of 65 is cancer. For men who did not live to retirement age, the death rate from cancer is 25.6%. In general, if we take into account all age groups, then in 2021 (the latest processed data), about 23% of all deaths in the countries of the European Union were caused by cancer. Cancer and cardiovascular diseases account for one in three deaths in the EU (among all age groups).
The other most common causes of death in women under 65 were diseases of the circulatory system (14.9%), the COVID-19 virus (10.2% – 2021 data) and respiratory diseases (4.2%). For men, the main causes of death after cancer were diseases of the circulatory system (22.0%), COVID-19 (9.8%) and accidents such as road accidents, deaths at work, etc. (6.9%).
For people aged 65 and over, the main causes of death for women in the EU are circulatory system diseases (37.3%), cancer (16.9%), COVID-19 (9.9%) and respiratory diseases (5 .7%).
For men aged 65 and older, the main causes are the same as for women of this age. However, the proportional relationship is somewhat different. The main reason that men of retirement age die are diseases of the circulatory system (31.8%). In second place is cancer (23.3%), followed by COVID-19 (12.0%) and respiratory diseases (7.3%).
