Cancer, heart disease beat Covid as leading cause of death in 2022

Cancer and heart disease were the leading causes of death in the Netherlands last year, claiming slightly more than half of the people who died last year. Covid-19 dropped to the sixth most common cause of death, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Tuesday.

Of the 170,000 people who died in the Netherlands last year, 28 percent died of cancer and 23 percent of cardiovascular disease. Mental disorders and diseases of the nervous system, which include dementia and Alzheimer's, were the third leading cause of death at 13 percent, followed by respiratory diseases (8%), non-natural causes (6%), and Covid-19 (5%).

Over 8,200 people died of Covid-19 last year, significantly less than the 19,600 Covid-19 deaths in 2021 and 20,200 in 2020.

Last year, 14,500 more people died than expected. That excess mortality was higher than the Covid-19 mortality for the first time since the pandemic struck. “Viewed across the entire pandemic, Covid-19 mortality at 48.0 thousand deaths, is slightly higher than excess mortality (45.8 thousand).”

The periods of excess mortality in 2020 and 2021 largely coincided with waves of coronavirus infections. In 2022, that was not always the case. “There were many more weeks with excess mortality throughout the year. The two flu waves may also play a role here.” CBS linked weekly excess mortality from the end of March to a 13-week-long flu wave that started in mid-March. There was another flu epidemic starting in mid-December.

While fewer people died from Covid-19 last year, mortality from other causes of death was higher. More people died from respiratory diseases (+27%) and mental disorders and diseases of the nervous system (+10%). Mortality from non-natural causes increased by 13 percent, mainly due to deaths resulting from accidental falls. Cardiovascular diseases caused 4 percent more deaths. Cancer-related deaths have been slowly decreasing for years.