Press Release 16/02/2021

DEATH STATISTICS. III/2020

Deaths in the Basque Country rose by 7.8% in the third quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic

In respect of the average for the last 10 years they increased by 12.5%

In the third quarter of 2020 the number of deaths in the Basque Country stood at 5,349, 7.8% more than the same period of the previous year, according to Eustat data. In the first quarter there were 387 more deaths compared to the same quarter of the previous year and 596 more than the average for the previous 10 years.

In Álava, the increase in deaths this quarter reached 10.5%, while it was 8.8% in Gipuzkoa and 6.6% in Bizkaia. By sex, 2,684 men and 2,665 women died, which was an increase of 10.6% for men and 5.1% for women.

Amongst the deaths that occurred in this first quarter, 8 corresponded to children under 1 year of age and 82 to centenarians.

The main causes of death were tumours and circulatory system diseases, which caused the deaths of 1,513 and 1,295 individuals, respectively, which means that together they accounted for 52.5% of deaths. As a third cause of death were diseases of the nervous system, accounting for 361 deaths (6.7%), and as a fourth cause was COVID-19, with 356 cases (6.6%).

Deaths caused by respiratory diseases fell by 30.8% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. There were 239 deaths as a result of digestive diseases, 2.6% up on the same period of the previous year.

The causes of the deaths still varied according to gender: among men, tumours were the leading cause of death (33.6%) and diseases of the circulatory system were the second (23.7%); among women, the opposite occurred: diseases of the circulatory system (24.7%) were the main cause of death, whereas tumours (22.9%) were the second.

Population growth in the Basque Country in the third quarter of 2020 was negative, with a population decrease of 1,475. The population decreased in the three provinces: by 1,001 people in Bizkaia, 417 in Gipuzkoa and 57 in Álava.

There were 356 deaths as a result of COVID-19 in the third quarter of 2020

In the third quarter of 2020, 356 deaths were caused by COVID-19, equal to 6.6% of the total. They fall into 2 groups: 329 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 27 probable COVID-19 deaths; there were a further 52 deaths in which COVID-19 was among the certified causes of death, but without being the main cause.

By province, the highest figure corresponded to Bizkaia, with 204, followed by Gipuzkoa with 90 and Álava with 62. As regards the capitals, Bilbao stands out with 89 deaths caused by COVID-19, followed by Vitoria-Gasteiz with 54 and Donostia/San Sebastián with 32. Barakaldo and Getxo also stood out, with 17 deaths each.

The number deaths of men (183) exceeded that of women (173), while in terms of age, it is worth noting that 96.3% of the deaths caused by COVID-19 occurred among those over 60 years of age and 77.5% among people aged over 80.

The majority of these deaths occurred in Basque hospitals (76.1%), followed by residential care homes (17.7%) and at home (0.5%).

In the first nine months of 2020 overall, there were a total of 2,077 deaths due to COVID-19. Of these, 1,793 were confirmed by a specific analysis, while 284 were diagnosed as likely cases of COVID-19. Most of these deaths occurred in the months of March (503) and April (1,048), falling in May (147), June (23), July (8) and then rising again in August (93) and September (255).

It should be pointed out that COVID-19 was present in a further 258 individuals who died in these same months, but it was not the main cause of death according to the death certificates and applying the World Health Organisation criteria for coding causes of death.

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