WHO has listed the top 10 causes of death globally, with heart disease and stroke leading the 2023 ranking as chronic diseases dominate mortality.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says ischaemic heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death worldwide, as part of its latest Global Health Estimates report released on Friday.
Ischaemic heart disease, caused by narrowed or blocked arteries that reduce blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle, was responsible for about 9.5 million deaths in 2023, accounting for 16 percent of all deaths globally. Deaths from the disease have risen by 3 million since 2000.
Stroke ranked second, causing about 6.8 million deaths, or 11 percent of global deaths. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was the third leading cause of death, with about 3.6 million deaths.
The Rest of the Top 10
Lower respiratory infections ranked fourth, accounting for 2.7 million deaths. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias ranked fifth, causing about 2.1 million deaths, representing roughly 3.4 percent of global deaths.
The other leading causes included diabetes, trachea, bronchus and lung cancers, hypertensive heart disease, kidney diseases and diarrhoeal diseases.
The WHO said the 10 leading causes of death collectively accounted for 33 million deaths, representing 54 percent of the 61 million deaths recorded globally in 2023.
Non-Communicable Diseases Dominate
The WHO said eight of the 10 leading causes of death globally in 2023 were non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which accounted for 74 percent of all deaths worldwide in 2023, compared with 58 percent in 2000, a shift the organisation says is no longer limited to high-income countries, but is increasingly a global phenomenon as populations grow and age.
It said cardiovascular diseases remained the leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide, with ischaemic heart disease alone responsible for approximately 210 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a measure of years of healthy life lost in 2023.
“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.”
Dementia’s Sharp Rise
The report also showed a sharp rise in deaths linked to 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. Dementia also disproportionately affects women, who account for around 68 percent of dementia deaths worldwide. The WHO noted that dementia can also develop following stroke, certain infections, repeated brain injuries or harmful alcohol use.
Life Expectancy Nearly Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels
The WHO also said 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, the number of years a person can expect to live in good health, stood at 62.8 years in 2023, 0.4 years below the 2019 level, indicating that while people are living nearly as long as before the pandemic, they are spending slightly more of those years in poorer health.
“The next challenge is to ensure that those additional years are lived in good health, while health systems are equipped to respond to the changing needs of populations,” said Alain Labrique, Director of WHO’s Department of Data, Digital Health, Analytics and AI.
COVID-19 Falls Out of the Top 10
COVID-19 also dropped out of the 10 leading causes of death globally for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, a shift that reflects the broader recovery in global health outcomes captured in the report, even as the long-term rise of non-communicable disease continues largely unabated.
