Brussels – Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in the European Union. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, in 2023 they accounted for 1.6 million deaths, or 32.5 per cent of the total recorded in the Union. Of the 244 regions classified, 108 recorded standardised mortality rates at or above the EU average of 313 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while 136 were below this figure.
Eurostat used the Community Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) to classify the regions. This is a geographical classification that divides the European Union’s economic territory into three levels by region – NUTS 1, 2 and 3 – ranging from the largest to the smallest territorial units. Above level 1 lies the “national” level of the Member States. The regions featured in the cardiovascular disease data all fall at level 2.
The Agency highlights that in 25 regions, cardiovascular diseases accounted for at least half of all deaths recorded in 2023. These include all six regions of Bulgaria, with Yuzhen tsentralen and Yugoiztochen standing out as having the highest figures, at 67.3 per cent and 66.4 per cent, respectively; Romania as a whole, with rates of 53 per cent or higher – and, in the case of South-West Oltenia reaching 63.8 per cent; Lithuania – divided into just two regions, with 53.7 per cent in the Vidurio ir vakarų Lietuvos regionas – the whole of Latvia at 52.2 per cent, six of the eight regions of Hungary and two of the four regions of Slovakia.
At the other end of the scale, five regions recorded a rate of less than 20 per cent. They are all located in France: the lowest percentage was recorded in the outermost region of Martinique (18.2 per cent), followed by Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (19.0 per cent), Guadeloupe (19.1 per cent), the Île-de-France capital region (19.4 per cent) and the County of France (19.9 per cent). Excluding Mayotte (30.5 per cent), all other French regions recorded rates not exceeding 22.4 per cent. Figures equal to or below this percentage were observed in: all five regions of Denmark, with the lowest rate in the Copenhagen capital region (20.5 per cent), and three regions of the Netherlands: South Holland (21.1 per cent), Utrecht (21.7 per cent) and Groningen (22.4 per cent).
Italy as a whole did not exceed approximately 35 per cent. In particular, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, Campania, and Lazio all stood at over 30 per cent, with Calabria leading the way at 34.8 per cent. Sardinia is amongst the least affected regions, with a figure of 25.3 per cent.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
