What are people dying from?
This question is essential to guide decisions in public health, and find ways to se lives.
Many leading causes of death receive little mainstream attention. If news reports reflected what children died from, they would say that around 1,400 young children die from diarrheal diseases, 1,000 die from malaria, and 1,900 from respiratory infections – every day.
This can change. Over time, death rates from these causes he declined across the world.
A better understanding of the causes of death has led to the development of technologies, preventative measures, and better healthcare, reducing the chances of dying from a wide range of different causes, across all age groups.
In the past, infectious diseases dominated. But death rates from infectious diseases he fallen quickly – faster than other causes. This has led to a shift in the leading causes of death. Now, non-communicable diseases – such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers – are the most common causes of death globally.
More progress is possible, and the impact of causes of death can fall further.
On this page, you will find global data and research on leading causes of death and how they can be prevented. This includes the number of people dying from each cause, their death rates, how they differ between age groups, and their trends over time.
This data can also help understand the burden of disease more broadly, and offer a lens to see the impacts of healthcare and medicine, habits and behiours, environmental factors, health infrastructure, and more.