Press Release 30/09/2013

MORTALITY STATISTICS OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY (EDEF) 1ST QUARTER 2013

Deaths fell by 15% in the first quarter of 2013

For women the decrease was 17% and for men it was 13%

In the first quarter of 2013 the number of deaths in the Basque Country stood at 5,028, 15% up on the same period of the previous year, according to Eustat data. By province, in Álava 625 individuals died, a decrease of 12.7%; 2,694 in Bizkaia (-18.8%) and 1,709 en Gipuzkoa (-9.1%). By sex, 2,552 men and 2,476 women died, which translate as decreases of 13.2% and 16.7%, respectively.

The main causes of death were tumours and circulatory system diseases, which caused the deaths of 1,440 and 1,431 individuals, respectively, which together as a whole accounted for 57.1% of deaths.

As a third cause of death were respiratory diseases, which caused 569 deaths, (11.3%), and fourth place was occupied by diseases of the digestive system, which in the months of January, February and March caused 216 deaths (4.3%).

Deaths by diseases of the respiratory system were down by 14.7%

The winter months are traditionally characterised for being those that account for the greatest number of deaths, with respiratory diseases normally registering the greatest increases compared to the other quarters. During the first quarter of 2013 569 individuals died from these illnesses, 14.7% down on the same quarter of the previous year (667 deaths) but 23.7% up on the fourth quarter of 2012 (460 deaths).

The cause of death continued to vary according to sex: amongst men, tumours caused more deaths than diseases of the circulatory system, whilst amongst women, the main cause of death was cardiovascular disease, followed by tumours in second place. Diseases of the respiratory system remained the third cause of death for both sexes.

Amongst the deaths that occurred in this first quarter, 9 corresponded to children under the age of 1, 4 girls and 5 boys.

Population growth in the Basque Country in the first quarter of 2013 was negative, with a population decrease of 498. Álava was the only province to experience an increase, its population growing by 115 inhabitants. In Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa the population was down given that the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 359 and 254, respectively.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62 Further press releases on MORTALITY STATISTICS of the Basque Country Databank on the Mortality Statistics of the Basque Country