Circulatory diseases remain leading cause of deaths in the EU

Brussels – There are many, all different. The most common are hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary vessel narrowing and occlusion, stroke, and angina pectoris. But the list does not end there. Whatever the name, circulatory diseases, those affecting and affecting blood vessels (veins and arteries), are the leading cause of death in the EU. Eurostat estimates that one in three deaths is due to this type of disease. The latest comprehensive set of data referring to 2022 shows that out of the 5.16 million deaths, 1.68 million were due precisely to circulatory diseases, thus responsible for 32.8 percent of premature departures.

The European Statistical Office data confirm a well-established situation. It has been since 2011, when it began collecting this kind of data, that circulatory diseases have emerged as the leading cause of death for men and women in the European Union, with the number of fatalities almost stable. While there were 1.7 million deaths from vein and artery problems in 2011, eleven years later, the number has only slightly decreased to 1.6 million. Specifically, it went from 1,704,335 to 1,687,874 fatal cases, a 16,461 increase.

What emerges is that circulatory diseases kill more than cancers, the second reason displayed on death certificates. According to 2022 data, venous and arterial diseases were responsible for 32.7 percent of deaths, cancer for 22.3 percent, and respiratory diseases for 7 percent.

The overall figure does not spare Italy either. Data show that even in Italy, circulatory diseases are now structurally the leading cause of death. In 2022, of the 721,974 confirmed deaths, 222,717 were derived from stroke, hypertension, thrombosis, and related, followed by malignant neoplasms (164,937 fatal cases). In third place are identified cases of COVID-19 (51,441), and in fourth are respiratory system diseases (50,686).