Press Release 17/02/2020

DEATH STATISTICS. III/2019

Deaths fell by 3.2% in the third quarter of 2019

Of the people who died, 71 were centenarians, 59 women and 12 men

In the third quarter of 2019 the figure for deaths in the Basque Country stood at 4,911, which was a drop of 3.2% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eustat data. As far as the sex of the people who died was concerned, 2,513 (51.2%) were women and 2,398 (48.8%) were men.

Deaths decreased in the three provinces: in Álava 625 people died, a fall of 4.6%; 2,703 in Bizkaia (-3.1%), and 1,583 in Gipuzkoa (-2.9%).

If we consider the age at the time of death, 18.9% of the people who died were under 70 years of age, 17.4% were between 70 and 79, 36.4% were between 80 and 89, and the remaining 27.2% had turned 90; of the latter, 71 people had reached the age of 100.

The average age of people who died was 80.45 years of age, 77.05 for men and 83.69 for women.

Amongst the deaths that occurred in the third quarter of 2019, 7 corresponded to children under the age of one, 2 boys and 5 girls.

A third of deaths were due to tumours

The main causes of death were tumours and circulatory system diseases, which caused the deaths of 1,525 and 1,222 individuals, respectively, which mean that together they caused 56.0% of deaths. The third cause of death was respiratory diseases, which resulted in 410 deaths (8.3%). These statistics are similar to the ones obtained in the same quarter of the previous year.

As in previous quarters, the cause of deaths differed according to sex: amongst men, tumours (38.0%) caused more deaths than diseases of the circulatory system (23.6%), whilst amongst women the main cause of death was cardiovascular disease (26.1%), followed by tumours (24.4%). Furthermore, the third most common cause of death for men was respiratory diseases (9.3%), whereas for women, it was diseases of the nervous system (8.7%).

Population growth in the Basque Country was negative in the third quarter of 2019, with deaths exceeding births by 833 individuals. By province, only Álava had a positive balance, with its population increasing by 75 people. Regarding Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, their population fell by 695 and 213 inhabitants, respectively.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62