The World Health Organisation has identified ischaemic heart disease and stroke as the leading causes of death globally, according to its latest report on the top causes of death. Ischaemic heart disease, which occurs when narrowed or blocked arteries reduce blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle, was responsible for about 9.5 million deaths in 2023, accounting for 16 per cent of all deaths worldwide.
Stroke ranked second, causing about 6.8 million deaths, or 11 per cent of global deaths, while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was the third leading cause, with about 3.6 million deaths. Lower respiratory infections ranked fourth, accounting for 2.7 million deaths, followed by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, which caused about 2.1 million deaths.
The WHO said eight of the 10 leading causes of death globally in 2023 were non-communicable diseases, which accounted for 74 per cent of all deaths worldwide, compared with 58 per cent in 2000. Other causes among the leading 10 were diabetes, trachea, bronchus and lung cancers, hypertensive heart disease, kidney diseases and diarrhoeal diseases.
The 10 leading causes of death collectively accounted for 33 million deaths in 2023, representing 54 per cent of the 61 million deaths recorded globally that year. The WHO said cardiovascular diseases remained the leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide, although there had been progress in reducing the burden of ischaemic heart disease in many parts of the world since 2000.
“There has been substantial progress in reducing the burden of ischaemic heart disease since 2000 in many parts of the world,” the report said. “However, increases in risk at an individual level were recorded in the WHO Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions, highlighting persistent inequalities in cardiovascular health between populations.”
The report also highlighted a sharp rise in deaths associated with dementia. Dementia became the fifth leading cause of death globally in 2023, compared with 19th in 2000, with deaths from the condition tripling over the period.
The WHO also reported that global life expectancy recovered to 73.3 years in 2023, close to the 73.4 years recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, healthy life expectancy stood at 62.8 years in 2023, which was 0.4 years below the 2019 level. COVID-19 also fell out of the global top 10 causes of death for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020.