Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are the main causes of death in 2022
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 10:20
Updated At: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 10:20
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In 2022, cardiovascular diseases (27.5%) and cancer (23.1%) were responsible for the largest proportion of deaths. As before the pandemic, dementia is in third place with 8.8 percent.
Covid-19 caused a total of 5.5 percent of deaths, putting it in fifth place behind respiratory diseases (6.1 percent), as the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) wrote in a press release on Monday.
A total of 4114 people died as a result of Covid-19, of which 2207 were men (53.6 percent) and 1907 women (46.4 percent). The average age was 82 for men and 85 for women. "This means that Covid-19 was no longer one of the three most common causes of death in 2022," wrote the FSO.
Six deaths were due to side effects of the Covid-19 vaccination, compared to 19 deaths in 2021, the BSF added. Four of these were women with an average age of 85 and two men with an average age of 91. Various multiple illnesses were reported among the deceased.
Most frequent causes of death
For the most common causes of death, cardiovascular diseases, the number of deaths was 9512 (26.1 percent) for men and 10,951 (28.8 percent) for women. According to the FSO, the average age of those who died was 81.4 years for men and 87.4 years for women.
Last year, 9310 men and 7910 women died of cancer, both with an average age of 75, according to the FSO. Lung cancer caused the most cancer-related deaths: For women, it was responsible for 18.1 percent, and for men 20.3 percent. Prostate cancer was in second place for men (14.5 percent) and breast cancer for women (17.2 percent).
More road traffic fatalities
Dementia is the third most common cause of death. In 2022, 6546 (8.8 percent) dementia-related deaths were recorded. These affected 2047 men with an average age of 86 and 4499 women with an average age of 89.
According to the FSO, there is a difference between men and women when it comes to respiratory diseases: While it is the third most common cause of death among men at 6.5 percent (2351 deaths), it is in fourth place among women at 5.7 percent (2166 deaths).
In 2022, the number of road traffic fatalities increased: a total of 233 people died - 173 men with an average age of 54 and 60 women with an average age of 53. According to the FSO, this represents an increase of 13 percent for men and 71 percent for women compared to 2021.
Suicides, on the other hand, declined slightly in 2022. For example, 263 women (average age 54) and 695 men (average age 58) took their own lives. Cases of assisted suicide, on the other hand, continued to increase: in 2022, 945 women and 649 men chose assisted suicide. In 2021, there were 1148 more people.
Almost 75,000 deaths in 2022
A total of 74,425 people living in Switzerland died last year. Of these, 36,442 were men and 37,983 women. This is according to the 2022 cause of death statistics from the FSO.
The average age of the deceased was 77 years for men and 83 years for women. Compared to 2021, the mortality rate increased by half a percent for men (+1337 deaths) and by 2.8 percent for women (+1896 deaths). "The results of the cause of death statistics do not indicate that this increase can be attributed to a single cause," wrote the FSO.
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