Number of deaths by cause in France 2013

In 2013, the main causes of death in France was cancer. That year 163,602 French individuals died of cancer, regardless of gender. Diseases appear to be the leading causes of death in Europe and Western countries. Ischaemic heart diseases, as well as other circulatory system diseases kill millions of Europeans every year.

Diseases are the leading causes of death in France and worldwide

In 2018, there were more than 601,000 deaths in France. Most of them were caused by cancer and other diseases. Tumor is the leading cause of death among French men, while women seem more affected by heart diseases. In Europe in 2016, the cause of death with the greatest likelihood of death was cancer, which occurred in 265 people out of every 100,000 Europeans. Despite the development of medicine and technological progress, health issues like cancers keep being the main causes of death among the human population.

The increase of life expectancy

Even though tumors and other heart diseases are responsible for the majority of deaths in the world, it appears that medical advances in the last years and decades have a real impact on mortality rate worldwide. Between 2007 and 2017 alone, the global death rate went from 8.08 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants to 7.62. Similarly, the global child mortality rate has fallen steadily across the world since the sixties. These different factors had led to an increase of life expectancy. In 2016, the average life expectancy at birth worldwide reached 72 years, compared to 64 years in 1990.