Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death

However, there was no change in the causes of death: cardiovascular diseases continued to be the number one cause, ahead of cancer, Statistics Austria announced on Wednesday. More than half of those who died were over 80 years old.

“Mortality adjusted for population growth and age structure was also around one percent below the average for the pre-corona period from 2015 to 2019,” said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas. Cardiovascular diseases (31,129 deaths) and cancer (21,067) were responsible for 58 percent of all deaths in 2023. In both groups, mortality has fallen compared to the pre-pandemic years (minus 15 and minus six percent respectively). In contrast, mortality due to dementia (plus 48 percent) and Parkinson’s disease (plus 13 percent) was significantly increased.

Other common causes of death

Mortality due to suicide returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 (plus three percent compared to the 2015-2019 average), after being slightly lower in 2020 and 2021. Covid mortality fell again in 2023, being 61 percent below the 2020-2022 average. In addition to diseases of the circulatory system (35 percent) and cancer (24 percent), other significant causes included respiratory diseases (six percent), injuries and poisoning (six percent), dementia (four percent) and diseases of the digestive system (four percent).

More than half of the deaths last year (52,258 deaths) occurred after the age of 80. Around 40 percent of all deaths occurred between the ages of 40 and 80 – mainly due to cancer (almost a third). Among adolescents and adults between the ages of ten and 40 (together only two percent of deaths), suicide, accidents and cancer were the most common causes of death. Among children aged one to ten (0.1 percent of deaths), accidents and cancer were the most common, while among infants (220 deaths in 2023 or 0.2 percent) birth complications and congenital malformations were the most common.