Suicide returned to the top 10 leading causes of death last year, while COVID-19 dropped out of the ranking, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said today.
Cancer remained the leading cause of death for the 43rd consecutive year, the ministry's data showed.
Ranked at No. 10, there were more than 4,000 suicides for the first time last year, while deaths related to COVID-19 dropped from the sixth spot on the list in 2023 to No. 14, the data showed.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The top 10 causes of death were cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, hypertensive disease, accidental injuries, chronic lower respiratory disease, kidney disease and suicide, the ministry said.
There were 201,383 deaths last year, a 2 percent decrease from the previous year, Department of Statistics section head Lu Shu-chun (呂淑君) said.
The mortality rate was 860.2 deaths per 100,000 people, a 2.3 percent drop from 2023, she added.
Using the age-standardized mortality rate formulated by the WHO in 2000, the mortality rate was 410.3 per 100,000 people, a decrease of 4.5 percent from the previous year, she said.
Death rates have almost returned to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, she added, as those over the age of 85 accounted for 61,726 of the total number of deaths, or 30.7 percent, Lu said.
That was a decrease of 2,488 compared with 2023, although the average age of death remained the same last year, at 77.
The top 10 causes of death accounted for 149,479 of all deaths last year, or 72 percent, Lu said.
Although deaths from suicide and pneumonia increased, those from accidental injuries, diabetes and kidney disease decreased, she added.
There were 54,032 cancer-related deaths last year, and the top 10 cancers were the same as in 2023: lung, liver, colon, breast, prostate, oral, pancreatic, stomach and ovarian, the data showed.
Lung cancer was the most fatal of all cancers for the past 21 years, Lu said.
Although deaths from prostate and ovarian cancer increased last year, other cancers decreased, she added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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