Mortality in the world

Main article: Population of the Earth

2023

In 10 years, deaths from fungal infections in the world have doubled

On January 14, 2024, British specialists from the University of Manchester released the results of a study according to which deaths from fungal infections on a global scale almost doubled in 10 years. The number of deaths by 2023 reached 3.8 million, while about a decade earlier this figure was estimated at 2 million. Read more here.

74 thousand people died from natural disasters in the world, damage reached $250 billion

At the end of 2023, the total damage to the global economy from natural disasters amounted to approximately $250 billion. This coincides with the indicator of 2022. Such data in early January 2024 are provided by the German Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies.

The report says that in 2023, natural disasters claimed a record number of lives - more than 74 thousand people died on a global scale. For comparison: the average annual figure for the previous five years was 10 thousand deaths. The earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were the most significant humanitarian disaster of 2023. In general, in 2023, about 63 thousand people (85% of the total) died due to geophysical hazards.

The total damage to the global economy from natural disasters amounted to approximately $250 billion

According to a study by Munich Re, the amount of insured losses decreased to $95 billion. For comparison: in 2022, this value was at around $125 billion. On average, the volume of insured losses for five years (by 2023) is about $105 billion per year.

The largest financial damage in 2023 was caused by hurricanes in the United States and Europe. In North America, property worth about $66 billion was destroyed, of which $50 billion was insured. In Europe, these indicators are estimated at €9.1 billion and €7.3 billion, respectively.

In general, the damage from natural disasters in 2023 reached $100 billion in North America, in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa - $64 billion. In Europe, losses are estimated at €77 billion, with the bulk falling on earthquakes in Turkey.

Weather cataclysms were aggravated by extremely high temperatures. Worldwide, average temperatures until November 2023 were about 1.3 ° C higher than in pre-industrial times (1850-1900). 2023 was the hottest year since the start of temperature measurements, the report says^[1]

2022

5 million children under the age of 5 die in the world every year

Globally, approximately 5 million children under the age of 5 die annually. Such data was disclosed on January 15, 2024 by Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), 5.2 million children under the age of five have died in the world in 2019. At the same time, death in most cases came from preventable and treatable causes. Of these, 1.5 million children died at the age of 1-11 months and 1.3 million - at the age of 1 to 4 years. The share of newborns (who lived less than 28 days) accounted for 2.4 million deaths. It is noted that since 1990, when 12.6 million children died under the age of five, significant progress has been made worldwide in reducing child mortality. However, according to Gates, problems persist in this area.

Approximately 5 million children under the age of 5 die each year

Based on its research, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reports that child mortality worldwide has decreased from more than 9.3 million cases in 2000 to 4.6 million in 2022. In addition, over the past two decades (by 2023), deaths from malaria and HIV have halved.

However, over the past few years (by 2023), due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our progress in health care has stalled, "emphasizes Gates.

WHO notes that infectious diseases, including pneumonia and diarrhea, as well as prematurity, birth asphyxia, injuries and congenital malformations, are the main causes of mortality in children under the age of five worldwide. The lives of many children can be saved by applying basic interventions such as skilled maternity care, postpartum care, breastfeeding and proper nutrition, vaccination and treatment of common childhood diseases.^[2]

Excess mortality amid COVID-19 in Europe

Data for 2020-2022

More than 5 million deaths due to injuries

According to the World Health Organization, more than 5 million deaths due to injuries are recorded annually in the world, with about 40% of deaths caused by acute blood loss. At the prehospital stage, up to 80% of victims die due to the inability to stop blood in a timely manner. Total blood losses for wounds, injuries, complications of operations can reach 2 liters or more. Stopping bleeding as soon as possible is a priority to save the lives of those affected.

Extreme air temperatures boost cardiovascular deaths

In mid-December 2022, it became known that climate change increases the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases. Extreme temperatures can be extremely dangerous for people with coronary disease, heart failure and arrhythmia, as well as those who have had a stroke, scientists at the University of Maryland in the United States said.

The authors of the scientific work, the study published in the journal Circulation, researchers at the University of Maryland in the United States used unified data collection protocols as part of the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaboration Network. The researchers were able to collect a database of daily counts of specific cardiovascular causes of death from 567 cities in 27 countries on 5 continents over overlapping periods from 1979 to 2019.

Extreme air temperatures boost cardiovascular deaths

Data on the daily ambient temperature in a particular city were obtained from weather stations and from climate reanalysis models. To examine the associations of cardiovascular mortality with extremely hot and cold temperatures, the scientists conducted cross-sectional case analysis models in each city and then used a mixed-effects meta-analytical framework to pool estimates across individual cities. Percentiles of extreme temperatures were compared to the minimum mortality temperature in each city. Excess mortality was calculated for a number of extreme temperature days.

The analysis included deaths from any cardiovascular causes (32,154,935), coronary heart disease (11,745,880), stroke (9,351,312), heart failure (3,673,723) and arrhythmias (670,859). In percentiles of extreme temperatures, heat (99th percentile) and cold (1st percentile) were associated with a higher risk of death from any cardiovascular cause, coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure compared to the minimum mortality temperature, that is, the temperature associated with the lowest mortality. In the range of extreme temperatures, hot days (above 97.5 percentile) and cold days (below 2.5 percentile) accounted for 2.2 (95% empirical CI [eCI], 2.1-2.3) and 9.1 (95% eCI, 8.9-9.2) excess deaths for each 1,000 cardiovascular deaths, respectively. Heart failure was associated with the highest proportion of excess deaths resulting from extremely hot and cold days: 2.6 (95% CI, 2.4-2.8) and 12.8 (95% CI, 12.2-13.1) for every 1,000 heart failure deaths, respectively.

In a large multinational sample, exposure to extreme hot and cold temperatures was associated with an increased risk of mortality from a variety of common cardiovascular diseases. The relationship between extreme temperatures and cardiovascular health should be carefully studied and especially in changing climates, the researchers said.^[3]

2020: What people die from on the same day

For 1 day on February 10, 2020:

• 26,283 people died of cancer;
• 24,641 died of heart disease;
• Mosquitoes kill 2,740 people every day;
• People kill 1,300 people every day;
• Snakes kill 137 people every day.

2019

2.6 million people died from alcohol in the world in a year

In 2019, approximately 2.6 million alcohol-related deaths were recorded worldwide. The highest mortality rates due to alcohol are observed in the European and African regions - 52.9 and 52.2 cases per 100,000 people, respectively. Such data are provided in a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), released on June 25, 2024. Read more here.

Due to environmental pollution in the world, 9 million people die in a year

According to a group of scientists published on May 17, 2022, worsening outdoor air pollution and toxic lead poisoning have led to the fact that since 2015, the death rate in the world from environmental pollution has been approximately 9 million people a year, which contradicts the progress made in combating pollution in a number of other countries.

Air pollution from industrial processes, as well as urbanization, led to a 7% increase in pollution-related deaths from 2015 to 2019, according to an analysis of data on global mortality and pollution levels by scientists.

Due to environmental pollution in the world, 9 million people can do it in a year

An earlier version of the paper, published in 2017, estimated pollution deaths at about 9 million a year - or about one in every six deaths in the world - and the damage to the global economy was up to $4.6 trillion a year. This puts air pollution on a par with smoking by the number of deaths in the world. For comparison, COVID-19 has killed about 6.7 million people worldwide since the pandemic began.

In their latest study, published in the online journal Lancet Planetary Health, the authors analyzed 2019 data from a Global Burden of Disease study conducted University of Washington that assesses the overall impact of pollution and calculates mortality risk.

The new analysis looks more specifically at the causes of pollution - separating traditional pollutants such as indoor smoke or sewage from more modern pollutants such as industrial air pollution and toxic chemicals. Here are some of the main takeaways:

{{quote 'Deaths from traditional polluters are declining worldwide. However, they remain a major problem in Africa and some other developing countries. Polluted water and soil, as well as dirty indoor air, place Chad, the Central African Republic and Niger among the top three countries with the most pollution-related deaths, according to population-adjusted data. Government programs to reduce indoor air pollution and improve sanitation have helped reduce deaths in some places. In Ethiopia and Nigeria, these efforts led to a two-thirds drop in air pollution-related deaths between 2000 and 2019. }} Despite declining deaths from traditional pollutants, deaths from exposure to modern pollutants such as heavy metals, agrochemicals and fossil fuel emissions are "just soaring," up 66% since 2000, says study co-author Rachel Kupka, executive director of the New York-based Global Alliance on Environmental Health and Pollution (GAHP).

The study authors also compiled a list of the 10 countries most affected by pollution-related deaths based on population-adjusted mortality data:

1. Chad;
2. Central African Republic;
3. Niger;
4. Solomon Islands;
5. Somalia;
6. SOUTH AFRICA;
7. North Korea;
8. Lesotho;
9. Bulgaria;
10. Burkina Faso.^[4]

2 million stillborn in the world

In Russia, the stillbirth rate for 20 years decreased by 43.9% - from 6.7 in 2000 to 3.8 in 2019. At the end of 2019, the Russian Federation accounted for 0.35% of stillbirths on a global scale. Such data were published in the journal The Lancet by a group of UNICEF researchers at the end of August 2021.

In the calculations, experts considered a stillborn child who died during gestation (starting at week 28 pregnancies) or childbirth. Stillbirth is one of the main problems health care and an indicator that directly depends on the quality of care in pregnancy and childbirth. According to the authors of the report, the first step towards stillbirth control is a standardized calculation of the indicator in different countries.

Stillbirth in the Russian Federation for 20 years decreased by 43.9%

Previously, the cumulative assessment of stillbirths was carried out by the World Health Organization in 2016. In a study published at the end of August 2021, WHO results were supplemented by 2,800 data units from 171 countries.

In 2019, about 2 million stillbirths were identified, the global stillbirth rate was 13.9 per 1000 births. At the same time, the stillbirth rate in West and Central Africa was 22.8 per 1000 births, and in Western Europe - 2.9. Unsatisfactory indicators were also observed in East and South Africa and South Asia.

The global annual rate of stillbirth reduction was 2.3% over the past 20 years. Thus, the reduction in stillbirths was lower than the reduction in the neonatal mortality rate and the mortality rate among children under 5 years of age during the same period.

The stillbirth rate has not decreased since 2000 in 81 countries. Of these, 34 states were sub-Saharan, 16 in East Asia and the Pacific, 15 in Latin America and the Caribbean.^[5]

Named the most common cause of death of people

Medical journal The Lancet has published a study looking at causes of death in 2019. Most often in the world died from high blood pressure. The full list of mortality factors for men and women of all ages in the world is as follows:

• high systolic blood pressure (10.8 million deaths);
• smoking (8.1 million);
• risks associated with diet (7.94 million);
• air pollution (6.67 million);
• high fasting plasma glucose (6.50 million deaths);
• high body mass index (5.02 million);
• high LDL cholesterol (4.40 million);
• renal impairment (3.16 million);
• maternal and child malnutrition (2.94 million);
• alcohol consumption (2.44 million).

Named the most common causes of human deaths in 2019

The main causes of mortality of the male population on a global scale at the end of 2019 are named:

• smoking (6.56 million);
• high systolic blood pressure (5.60 million) risks associated with diet (4.47 million).

In women, causes of death at any age were predominant:

• high systolic blood pressure (5.25 million);
• risks associated with diet (3.48 million);
• high fasting plasma glucose (3.09 million);
• air pollution (2.92 million);
• high body mass index (2.54 million);
• smoking (2.15 million deaths);
• high LDL cholesterol (2.04 million).

According to the study, the main causes of DALY (disability-adjusted years of life) or loss of health varied by age group. The main health problems in young people aged 10-49 years were injuries resulting from road accidents, headaches, HIV/AIDS, low back pain and depressive disorders. In people aged 50 years and older, the main causes of loss of health were coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes mellitus, experts say.^[6]

Deaths from environmental problems

How many people die from environmental problems every year. Data for 2019

More than 8 million people a year die from environmental problems. This is slightly more than tobacco, and significantly more than alcohol and drugs (3.5 million in total), poor diet, infections and armed conflicts.

More than 4 million deaths are air pollution, about one and a half million are water pollution.

Number of deaths from environmental problems by country according to the 2019 Pollution and Health Metrics 2019 report

In 8th place - Russia, 118 thousand people died from problems associated with poor ecology. Of these, 99 thousand died from air problems, 9 thousand each from lead poisoning and from pollution at the workplace and a little less than a thousand people from water pollution.

2017: Which diseases die the most

The main cause of death in the world is cardiovascular disease. In second place are tumors. Further chronic respiratory diseases, acute respiratory and tuberculosis, neurological diseases, diabetes, digestive disorders

Notes