TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — While cancer has been the number one cause of death in Taiwan for 41 consecutive years, COVID-19 will rank third in 2022.
On Monday (June 12), the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MOHW) released statistics on the leading causes of death in 2022. COVID-19 jumped from 19th to 3rd among the top 10 causes of death, having killed nearly 15,000 people in 2022.
cancer death
Cancer still tops the list, claiming nearly 52,000 lives.In second place is heart disease, followed by COVID-19, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, unintentional injuries, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and kidney disease, Get into the top 10.
Taiwan’s “cancer death clock” has also been accelerated by 3 seconds compared to 2022, with one patient dying of cancer every 10 minutes and 7 seconds. In 2022, the number of cancer deaths will reach 51,927, an increase of 271 from 2021, resulting in a cancer death rate of 222.7 per 100,000 people, an increase of 1.2%, while the overall death rate of all diseases in Taiwan in 2022 is 893.8 per 100,000 people, An increase of 13.9% over 2022.
top ten causes of death
The number of people who will die from the top 10 causes of death in 2022 will be 157,267, accounting for 75.5% of the total number of deaths. The cause of death with the highest increase was COVID-19, followed by hypertension (+10.6%), heart disease (+8.3%) and diabetes (+7.3%).
The number of all-cause deaths in 2022 will be 208,438, an increase of 24,266 or 13.2% over 2021. The health ministry attributed the increase in deaths to the impact of the pandemic as well as an aging population.
Leading causes of death by age
In terms of the main causes of death in each age group, accidents are the main cause of death for people aged 1-24. For those aged 25-44, cancer and suicide were the leading causes, while for those aged 45 and over, cancer and heart disease were the two leading causes.
In terms of cancer deaths, 87% were aged 55 or older. Cancer deaths will account for 24.9% of deaths in 2022, a 1.2% increase from 2021.
The top 10 deadliest cancers in 2022 and 2021 are as follows:
- Trachea, bronchi and lung cancer
- Liver and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma
- Colon, rectal and anal cancer
- female breast cancer
- prostate cancer
- Oral Cancer
- pancreatic cancer
- stomach cancer
- Esophageal cancer
- ovarian cancer
death from covid-19
As for Taiwan’s COVID-19 deaths, 86% occurred in people aged 65 and over. The number of deaths from the new crown in 2022 will reach 14,667, and the median age of death will be 82 years old.
Luo Yijun, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the media on Monday that Taiwan will see such a large number of new crown deaths in 2022 because it is the largest virus outbreak in the country. People aged 85 and over accounted for 41.3 percent of the deaths, those aged 75 to 84 accounted for 27.8 percent of the deaths, and those aged 65 to 74 accounted for 17.2 percent, Luo said.
The virus disproportionately affects older adults, especially those who have not received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Luo said. As of 2023, 5,157 people have died from COVID-19, Lo said.
He predicts that the leading cause of death from COVID-19 will drop to sixth or seventh place, but this depends on how the outbreak in Taiwan progresses.
Luo cited The Economist’s estimate that Taiwan’s death toll due to COVID-19 exceeded 22,852. Among these deaths, factors related to the new coronavirus accounted for 64 percent, while the rest were not directly related to the new coronavirus but were caused indirectly or by other chronic diseases, Luo said.
