Cardiovascular diseases and cancer remain by far the most important causes of death

Statistics Belgium has just published the trends in causes of death for the year 2012. The data show that:

• the number of deaths increased strongly in 2012 due to the continuous ageing of the population;
• cardiovascular diseases remained the most common cause of death (28.8%), although their relative importance decreased steadily throughout the period under review (36.0% in 1998);

• cancer still remained the second most important cause of death (26.0%). Respiratory diseases (10.4%) were far behind and remained markedly stable in terms of number and relative importance;
• malignant tumours in the respiratory system (particularly lungs, bronchi and trachea; 6.0%), the colon (2.7%), the breast (2.1%) and the prostate (1.3%) were among the most common types of cancer;
• the importance of transport accidents (0.7% of the total) as non-natural cause of death gradually decreased, especially among men;
• the number of suicides remained stable throughout the entire period under review (1.9% in 2012 just like in 1998).

These statistics are based on the statistical forms for the registration of deaths that are received and coded (processed) by the institutions of the federated entities before they are transmitted to the federal government. This administrative process results in long publication lags. In addition, these statistics have been based on the National Register for the third consecutive year to determine the total number of deaths among people legally residing in Belgium. The use of the National Register allows the deaths abroad of the legally residing population of Belgium to be included in these statistics, and makes it easier to exclude those people who are usually but not legally residing in Belgium from the statistics.

By retrieving the data from 2000 to 2002, the 2012 statistics complement a long series that started in 1998 with the tenth revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) of the World Health Organization. The ICD-10 is used to describe and code causes of death. Based on this classification, the underlying causes of death are identified and, in turn, the most important tables of these statistics are created.

The statistics on causes of death produced with this method are an interesting statistical source that can result in numerous analyses by cause or group of causes, by region or province, by sex, by age or age group. Data are now available for the entire period 1998 - 2012.