Eurostat analysis has found that circulatory diseases and cancer were the leading causes of death in 2020, ahead of the covid-19 virus. In the EU, 1.7m people died of circulatory diseases and 1.2m from cancer--together these types of diseases accounted for 55% of deaths in the EU.
While they were the leading cause in many EU countries, like in Bulgaria (61%), Romania and Latvia, in Luxembourg they shared the first spot with cancer. 1,086 out of 4,439 deaths--or around 25%--in the grand duchy in 2020 were attributed to circulatory diseases. In France, they were the least significant cause of death, with a 20% rate.
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However, as specifies Eurostat, “to make a sound comparison between countries, the absolute numbers of deaths across the countries need to be adjusted to the size and structure of the population.” Indeed, while Bulgaria had the highest circulatory disease death rate in the EU, this may also be due to it having the highest death rate--1,787 per 100,000--whereas Luxembourg (905) and France (863) recorded some of the lowest ones.
Diseases of the circulatory system affect the heart, arteries, veins and blood, and take the shape of arrhythmias, aneurysms, blood pressure conditions, heart failure or cardiomyopathy for example.
Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the EU in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.