List of causes of death by rate

The following is a list of the causes of human deaths worldwide for different years arranged by their associated mortality rates. Some causes listed include deaths also included in more specific subordinate causes, and some causes are omitted, so the percentages may only sum approximately to 100%. The causes listed are relatively immediate medical causes, but the ultimate cause of death might be described differently. For example, tobacco smoking often causes lung disease or cancer, and alcohol use disorder can cause liver failure or a motor vehicle accident. For statistics on preventable ultimate causes, see preventable causes of death. In 2002, there were about 57 million deaths. In 2005, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), about 58 million people died. In 2010, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 52.8 million people died. In 2016, the WHO recorded 56.7 million deaths with the leading cause of death as cardiovascular disease causing more than 17 million deaths (about 31% of the total) as shown in the chart to the side. In 2021, there were approx. 68 million deaths worldwide, as per WHO report. Besides frequency, other measures to compare, consider, and monitor trends of causes of deaths include disability-adjusted life year (DALY) and years of potential life lost (YPLL).

By frequency Age standardized death rate, per 100,000, by cause, in 2017, and percentage change 2007–2017.

Overview table This first table gives an overview of the general categories and broad causes. The leading cause is cardiovascular disease at 31.59% of all deaths.

Developed vs. developing economies

Top causes of death, according to the World Health Organization report for the calendar year 2001:

Detailed table This table gives a more detailed and specific breakdown of the causes for the year 2017. Figures have a margin of error of about 5% on average.

By lost years

Underlying causes Causes of death can be structured into immediate causes of death or primary causes of death, conditions leading to cause of death, underlying causes, and further relevant conditions that may have contributed to fatal outcome. According to the WHO, underlying causes are "the disease[s] or injury[ies] which initiated the train[s] of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury".

Malnutrition Malnutrition can be identified as an underlying cause for shortened life. 70% of childhood deaths (age 0–4) are reportedly due to diarrheal illness, acute respiratory infection, malaria and immunizable disease. However 56% of these childhood deaths can be attributed to the effects of malnutrition as an underlying cause. The effects of malnutrition include increased susceptibility to infection, musculature wasting, skeletal deformities and neurologic development delays. According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition is named as the biggest contributor to child mortality with 36 million deaths in 2005 related to malnutrition.

Obesity and unhealthy diets Beyond undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, malnutrition also includes obesity, which predisposes towards several chronic diseases, including 13 different types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. According to the WHO, being "chronically overweight and obesity are among the leading causes of death and disability in Europe", with estimates suggesting they cause more than 1.2 million deaths annually, corresponding to over 13% of total mortality in the region. Various types of health policy could counter the trend and reduce obesity. Diets, not just in terms of obesity but also of food composition, can have a major impact on underlying factors (see also #Aging below), with reviews suggesting i.a. that a 20-years old male in Europe who switches to the "optimal diet" could gain a mean of ~13.7 years of life and a 60-years old female in the U.S. switching to the "optimal diet" could gain a mean of ~8.0 years of life. It found the largest gains would be made by eating more legumes, whole grains, and nuts, and less red meat and processed meat. It also contains no consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (moving from "typical Western diet" of 500 g/day to 0 g/day).

Pollution A review concluded that pollution was responsible for 9 million premature deaths in 2019 (one in six deaths, ¾ from air pollution). It concluded that little real progress against pollution can be identified.

Air pollution Overall, air pollution causes the deaths of around ca. 7 million people worldwide each year, and is the world's largest single environmental health risk, according to the WHO (2012) and the IEA (2016). The IEA notes that many of root causes and cures can be found in the energy industry and suggests solutions such as retiring polluting coal-fired power plants and to establishing stricter standards for motor vehicles. In September 2020 the European Environment Agency reported that environmental factors such as air pollution and heatwaves contributed to around 13% of all human deaths in EU countries in 2012 (~630,000). A 2021 study using a high spatial resolution model and an updated concentration-response function finds that 10.2 million global excess deaths in 2012 and 8.7 million in 2018 – or a fifth – were due to air pollution generated by fossil fuel combustion, significantly higher than earlier estimates and with spatially subdivided mortality impacts. A 2020 study indicates that the global mean loss of life expectancy (LLE) from air pollution in 2015 was 2.9 years, substantially more than, for example, 0.3 years from all forms of direct violence, albeit a significant fraction of the LLE is considered to be unavoidable.

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