Cancer remained the No. 1 killer in Taiwan last year, the Department of Health (DOH) said, with one person dying from the disease every 13 minutes and 30 seconds last year — 25 seconds faster than the previous year.
The DOH yesterday released its figures on the leading causes of death in the country, with cancer topping the list for the 27th consecutive year.
The DOH's Department of Statistics said that the number of deaths surpassed more than 140,000 for the first time last year, but the average life expectancy for men and women rose to 75.5 years for men and 82 years for women. In 2007, it was 75.47 years for males and 81.71 years for females.
Huang Hsu-ming (黃旭明), director of the statistics department, said that the major 10 causes of death last year were the same as in 2007. Malignant tumors were responsible for 27.3 percent of all deaths last year, followed by heart disease (11.1 percent), cerebrovascular disease (7.5 percent), pneumonia (6.1 percent), diabetes (5.6 percent), accidents (5.0 percent), lower chronic respiratory disease (3.8 percent), chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (3.5 percent), suicide (2.9 percent), and nephritis, nephritic syndrome and nephrosis (2.8 percent).
Deaths caused by chronic liver disease and accidents saw the largest declines, with both falling 6.4 percent, the statistics showed.
The rate of death caused by cancer declined 0.1 percent last year to 133.7 per 100,000 people, with 38,913 people dying from the disease.
There was no change in the order of top cancer killers. Lung cancer was responsible for most cancer deaths (20 percent), followed by liver cancer (19.7 percent) and colorectal cancer (11 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 were breast cancer, stomach cancer, oral cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, esophageal cancer and pancreatic cancer.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS