Mortality still higher than expected, but Covid contribution smaller

The total number of deaths so far in 2023 has been higher than expected if there had been no coronavirus pandemic, but COVID-19's share in the excess mortality is decreasing. Almost 2,000 people died of COVID-19 in the first seven months of this year, significantly fewer than in preceding years, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported based on preliminary figures.

In the first seven months of 2023, around 7,000 more people died than CBS would have expected if there had been no COVID-19 pandemic. “The excess mortality was higher than the 2,000 deaths due to COVID-19. That was also the case in 2022, with an excess mortality of 14,500 and 8,200 from COVID-19. The share of COVID-19 in total mortality, and the correlation with excess mortality, decreased further in 2023,” CBS said.

While the coronavirus’s share in excess mortality is decreasing, more people are dying from the consequences of accidental falls, respiratory diseases, and dementia. These deaths were “proportionally higher in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021,” CBS said. “According to the provisional figures up to and including July, this trend will continue in 2023.”

The most common causes of death in the past three years were dementia, stroke, heart failure, lung cancer, COVID-19, COPD, breast cancer in women, prostate cancer in men, accidental fall, ischemic heart disease, colon or rectal cancer, and pneumonia. These causes of death were responsible for approximately half of all deaths annually.