List of causes of death by rate

The following is a list of the causes of human deaths worldwide for the year 2002, arranged by their associated mortality rates. There were 57,029,000 deaths tabulated for that year. Some causes listed include deaths also included in more specific subordinate causes (as indicated by the "Group" column), and some causes are omitted, so the percentages do not sum to 100. According to theWorld Health Organization, about 58 million people died in 2005.^[1]

It is estimated that of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds—100,000 per day—die of age-related causes.^[2] In industrialized nations the proportion is much higher, reaching 90%.^[2] Thus, albeit indirectly, biological aging is by far the leading cause of death.

Contents   [hide]  1 Causes ranked by frequency 2 Malnutrition as an underlying cause 3 Developed vs. developing economies 3.1 United States 3.2 By age group 3.3 By occupation 4 See also 5 References

Causes ranked by frequency[edit]

Note: tinted backgrounds indicate items that also appear in subsequent table.

Deaths per 100,000 per year^[3]

Group[4]	Cause	Percent of deaths	All	Male	Female
–	All Causes	100.00	916.1	954.7	877.1
A	Cardiovascular diseases	29.34	268.8	259.3	278.4
B	Infectious and parasitic diseases	23.04	211.3	221.7	200.4
A.1	Ischemic heart disease	12.64	115.8	121.4	110.1
C	Malignant neoplasms (cancers)	12.49	114.4	126.9	101.7
A.2	Cerebrovascular disease (Stroke)	9.66	88.5	81.4	95.6
B.1	Respiratory infections	6.95	63.7	63.5	63.8
B.1.1	Lower respiratory tract infections	6.81	62.4	62.2	62.6
D	Respiratory diseases	6.49	59.5	61.1	57.9
E	Unintentional injuries	6.23	57.0	73.7	40.2
B.2	HIV/AIDS	4.87	44.6	46.2	43.0
D.1	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	4.82	44.1	45.1	43.1
–	Perinatal conditions	4.32	39.6	43.7	35.4
F	Digestive diseases	3.45	31.6	34.9	28.2
B.3	Diarrhea diseases	3.15	28.9	30.0	27.8
G	Intentional injuries (Suicide, Violence, War, etc.)	2.84	26.0	37.0	14.9
B.4	Tuberculosis	2.75	25.2	32.9	17.3
B.5	Malaria	2.23	20.4	19.4	21.5
C.1	Lung cancers	2.18	20.0	28.4	11.4
E.1	Road traffic accidents	2.09	19.1	27.8	10.4
B.6	Childhood diseases	1.97	18.1	18.0	18.2
H	Neuropsychiatric disorders	1.95	17.9	18.4	17.3
–	Diabetes mellitus	1.73	15.9	14.1	17.7
A.3	Hypertensive heart disease	1.60	14.6	13.4	15.9
G.1	Suicide	1.53	14.0	17.4	10.6
C.2	Stomach cancer	1.49	13.7	16.7	10.5
I	Diseases of the genitourinary system	1.49	13.6	14.1	13.1
F.1	Cirrhosis of the liver	1.38	12.6	16.1	9.1
I.1	Nephritis/nephropathy	1.19	10.9	11.0	10.7
C.3	Colorectal cancer	1.09	10.0	10.3	9.7
C.4	Liver cancer	1.08	9.9	13.6	6.2
B.6.1	Measles	1.07	9.8	9.8	9.9
G.2	Violence	0.98	9.0	14.2	3.7
–	Maternal conditions	0.89	8.2	0.0	16.5
–	Congenital abnormalities	0.86	7.9	8.1	7.7
J	Nutritional deficiencies	0.85	7.8	6.9	8.7
C.5	Breast cancer	0.84	7.7	0.1	15.3
C.6	Esophageal cancer	0.78	7.2	9.1	5.2
A.4	Inflammatory heart disease	0.71	6.5	6.7	6.2
H.1	Alzheimer's disease and other dementias	0.70	6.4	4.7	8.1
E.2	Falls	0.69	6.3	7.5	5.0
E.3	Drowning	0.67	6.1	8.4	3.9
E.4	Poisoning	0.61	5.6	7.2	4.0
C.7	Lymphomas, multiple myeloma	0.59	5.4	5.4	5.4
A.5	Rheumatic heart disease	0.57	5.3	4.4	6.1
C.8	Oral and oropharynx cancers	0.56	5.1	7.1	3.1
E.5	Fires	0.55	5.0	3.8	6.2
B.6.2	Pertussis	0.52	4.7	4.7	4.8
C.9	Prostate cancer	0.47	4.3	8.6	0.0
C.10	Leukemia	0.46	4.2	4.7	3.8
F.2	Peptic ulcer disease	0.46	4.2	5.0	3.5
J.1	Protein-energy malnutrition	0.46	4.2	4.2	4.2
–	Endocrine/nutritional disorders	0.43	3.9	3.4	4.4
D.2	Asthma	0.42	3.9	3.9	3.8
C.11	Cervical cancer	0.42	3.8	0.0	7.7
C.12	Pancreatic cancer	0.41	3.7	3.9	3.5
B.6.3	Tetanus	0.38	3.4	3.4	3.5
B.7	Sexually transmitted diseases excluding HIV/AIDS	0.32	2.9	2.9	2.9
C.13	Bladder cancer	0.31	2.9	4.0	1.7
B.8	Meningitis	0.30	2.8	2.9	2.7
G.3	War	0.30	2.8	5.0	0.5
B.7.1	Syphilis	0.28	2.5	2.7	2.3
–	Neoplasms other than malignant	0.26	2.4	2.4	2.4
J.2	Iron deficiency anemia	0.24	2.2	1.5	2.9
C.14	Ovarian cancer	0.24	2.2	0.0	4.4
B.9	Tropical diseases excluding malaria	0.23	2.1	2.5	1.6
H.2	Epilepsy	0.22	2.0	2.2	1.8
–	Musculoskeletal diseases	0.19	1.7	1.2	2.2
B.10	Hepatitis B	0.18	1.7	2.3	1.0
H.3	Parkinson's disease	0.17	1.6	1.6	1.6
H.4	Alcohol use disorders	0.16	1.5	2.5	0.4
H.5	Drug use disorders	0.15	1.4	2.2	0.5
B.1.2	Upper respiratory infections	0.13	1.2	1.2	1.2
C.15	Uterine cancer	0.12	1.1	0.0	2.3
–	Skin diseases	0.12	1.1	0.8	1.4
C.16	Melanoma and other skin cancers	0.12	1.1	1.1	1.0
B.11	Hepatitis C	0.09	0.9	1.1	0.6
B.9.1	Leishmaniasis	0.09	0.8	1.0	0.7
B.9.2	Trypanosomiasis	0.08	0.8	1.0	0.5
I.2	Benign prostatic hyperplasia	0.06	0.5	1.0	0.0

Malnutrition as an underlying cause[edit]

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please do not remove this message until thedispute is resolved. (February 2011)

Hunger and poor nutrition, directly or as an underlying cause for the fatal diseases listed above, causes 36 million deaths per year accounting for more than 1 death each second on average.^{[5][6][7][verification needed]} Statistically, a child under five dies every 5 seconds on average as a direct or indirect result of poor nutrition.^[8] This is 6 million children per year, more than half of all child deaths.^{[9][10][11][12][verification needed]}

Developed vs. developing economies[edit]

Top causes of death, according to the World Health Organization report for the calendar year 2001:^[13]

Causes of death in undeveloped countries	Number of deaths	Causes of death in developed countries	Number of deaths
HIV-AIDS	2,678,000	Ischaemic heart disease	3,512,000
Lower respiratory infections	2,643,000	Cerebrovascular disease	3,346,000
Ischaemic heart disease	2,484,000	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	1,829,000
Diarrhea	1,793,000	Lower respiratory infections	1,180,000
Cerebrovascular disease	1,381,000	Lung cancer	938,000
Childhood diseases	1,217,000	Car accident	669,000
Malaria	1,103,000	Stomach cancer	657,000
Tuberculosis	1,021,000	Hypertensive heart disease	635,000
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	748,000	Tuberculosis	571,000
Measles	674,000	Suicide	499,000

United States[edit]

Further information: List of preventable causes of death#Leading causes in the United States

By age group[edit]

Leading causes of death in the United States by age group.[14] Leading causes of death in the United States, as percentage of deaths in each age group.[14] Perinatal mortality (<1yrs of age) seldom falls in any of these causes.

Death by age group as rate compared to the age group with highest rate.[14]

By occupation[edit]

Number and rate of fatal occupational injuries, by industry sector, 2006 in the United States.[15] Selected occupations with high fatality rates, 2006, in the United States.[15]

See also