Alex Trelinski
TUMOURS were the leading cause of death in Spain in 2024- for the second successive year, accounting for 26.6% of fatalities.
Figures compiled by the National Institute of Statistics showed diseases of the circulatory system in second with 26.1% of deaths.
Compared to the previous year, deaths from tumours remained the same, while those from diseases of the circulatory system fell by 2.4%.
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This decrease meant that the rate of death from tumours (236.4 per 100,000 inhabitants) was higher than that of diseases of the circulatory system (231.8 per 100,000).
Among tumours, bronchus and lung cancer was the most frequent cause with 23,239 deaths(1.9% more than in 2023), followed by colon cancer with 10,434 deaths but 4.6% down on the previous year.
As for fatalities from circulatory system diseases, ischemic heart disease was the most frequent cause last year, with 26,851 deaths( down 3.2%) followed by cerebrovascular diseases on 22,786 (2.7% less).
In 2024, there were 433,357 deaths in Spain with 95.8% of them occurring from natural causes.
The largest increases in deaths were in kidney failure(up 10.3% more) and pneumonia (7.7%).
The biggest falls were in colon cancer cases.
For the first time since 2020, Covid-19 did not appear in 2024 among the 15 main causes of death in Spain, despite the fact that in the period between 2020 and 2022 it was the most frequent cause.
Last year saw 18,304 deaths from external causes with the top reason- for the second successive year- being accidental falls, with 4,407 deaths (6% more than in 2023).
The second external factor was suicide with 3,846, a figure that is down 6.6% compared to 2023.
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