The leading causes of death globally in 2023 were dominated by cardiovascular disease, with ischaemic heart disease and stroke together responsible for more than 16 million deaths, according to the World Health Organisation’s latest report.
Ischaemic heart disease remained the world’s biggest cause of death, claiming about 9.5 million lives in 2023. The condition occurs when arteries supplying blood to the heart become narrowed or blocked, reducing the flow of oxygen to the heart muscle. It accounted for around 16 per cent of all deaths recorded worldwide that year.
Stroke was the second leading cause, responsible for about 6.8 million deaths, or 11 per cent of global deaths. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as COPD, ranked third with approximately 3.6 million deaths.
Lower respiratory infections were the fourth leading cause, killing about 2.7 million people. Alzheimer disease and other forms of dementia ranked fifth, with around 2.1 million deaths.
The remaining causes in the global top 10 were diabetes, cancers of the trachea, bronchus and lung, hypertensive heart disease, kidney diseases and diarrhoeal diseases.
Together, the 10 leading causes accounted for about 33 million deaths in 2023. That represented 54 per cent of the roughly 61 million deaths recorded worldwide during the year, showing how heavily global mortality continues to be concentrated among a relatively small number of conditions.
The WHO reported that eight of the 10 leading causes were non-communicable diseases. These conditions accounted for 74 per cent of deaths worldwide in 2023, compared with 58 per cent in 2000.
Cardiovascular diseases continued to account for the largest share of deaths and disease burden worldwide. At the same time, the WHO said there had been significant progress in reducing the burden of ischaemic heart disease in many parts of the world since 2000.
That progress, however, has not been evenly distributed. The report noted increases in individual risk in the WHO Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions, pointing to continuing differences in cardiovascular health between populations.
Dementia also stood out as one of the major changes over the period covered by the report. In 2023, dementia was the fifth leading cause of death worldwide, compared with 19th in 2000. Deaths linked to dementia more than tripled during that period.
The change reflects the growing impact of conditions associated with ageing populations, although the WHO’s figures also show that the global causes of death are not uniform. Infectious diseases continue to feature among the leading causes, particularly lower respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases, while non-communicable diseases account for most deaths worldwide.
The latest figures also provide a picture of the world’s recovery in life expectancy following the COVID-19 pandemic. Global life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, almost returning to the 73.4 years recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.
Healthy life expectancy has recovered more slowly. It stood at 62.8 years in 2023, which was still 0.4 years below the 2019 level.
COVID-19, meanwhile, fell out of the global top 10 causes of death for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020. Its disappearance from the list marks a significant change from the years when the disease became one of the world’s largest causes of death.
The WHO figures show that while the global health landscape has changed since the start of the pandemic, the largest burden of mortality remains tied to long-term diseases, particularly heart and cardiovascular conditions. The figures also underline the continuing differences in health outcomes between populations and the uneven progress made in reducing major causes of death.
