Diseases of the circulatory system caused 1.6 million deaths in the EU in 2023, accounting for 32.5% of all deaths.
The category includes ischaemic heart disease, hypertensive diseases (linked to high blood pressure) and cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke, Eurostat informed in a release on Tuesday.
New figures also break down deaths by 244 regions across the EU at NUTS 2 level — a standard statistical geography used to compare regions.
A total of 108 regions recorded standardised death rates at or above the EU average of 313 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, adjusted to a standard age distribution, while 136 regions were below it.
In 25 regions, diseases of the circulatory system accounted for at least half of all deaths in 2023.
Wide regional differences across the EU
All six regions in Bulgaria fell into the group where circulatory system diseases made up at least half of deaths, with the highest shares recorded in Yuzhen tsentralen (67.3%) and Yugoiztochen (66.4%), Eurostat said.
All eight regions in Romania also recorded shares of at least 53.0%, including 63.8% in Sud-Vest Oltenia.
The same group included both regions of Lithuania, Latvia (counted as a single region at this level), six of Hungary’s eight regions and two of Slovakia’s four regions.
At the other end of the scale, five regions recorded fewer than 20.0% of all deaths attributed to circulatory system diseases, and all were in France.
The lowest share was in Martinique (18.2%), followed by Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (19.0%), Guadeloupe (19.1%), Île-de-France (19.4%) and Franche-Comté (19.9%).
Shares no higher than 22.4% were also recorded in all five Danish regions, with the lowest in the capital region of Hovedstaden (20.5%), and in three regions in the Netherlands: Zuid-Holland (21.1%), Utrecht (21.7%) and Groningen (22.4%).
