Eurostat: Three regions in Bulgaria had highest death rate in EU in 2021
The three regions in the European Union with the highest standardised death rate in 2021 were all in Bulgaria, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on March 25.
The standardised death rate is the death rate of a population adjusted to a standard age distribution. It is calculated as a weighted average of the age-specific death rates of a given population; the weights are the age distribution of that population.
The three regions in Bulgaria were Yugozapaden (390.68 per 100 000 inhabitants), Severen Tsentralen (387.33) and Severoiztochen (366.75).
Meanwhile, the three regions in the EU with the lowest standardised death rates were Pohjois-ja Itä-Suomi (8.86) and Länsi-Suomi (10.07) in Finland and Syddanmark (12.89) in Denmark, Eurostat said.
In 2021, there were 5.3 million deaths in the EU; the main causes of death across the EU were circulatory diseases, cancer and Covid-19, the statistics agency said.
The EU’s standardised death rate for Covid-19 was 115.5 deaths per 100 000 people in 2021.
Deaths related to circulatory diseases amounted to 1.71 million in 2021 (32 per cent of all deaths). Cancer was the second most common cause, with 1.14 million causes of death (22 per cent).
Covid-19 was third with 0.57 million (11 per cent). Together these three diseases made up 65 per cent of the causes of all deaths in 2021.
Other leading causes of death were respiratory diseases (0.32 million; six per cent), external causes of morbidity and mortality (0.23 million; four per cent), diseases of the digestive system (0.21 million; four per cent), mental and behavioural disorders (0.19 million; four per cent) and endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (0.17 million; three per cent).
(Main photo, of Sofia Central Cemetery: Bertramz)
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