Mortality and causes of death
Date: 07/03/2024
Life expectancy in Germany has risen since the 1970s: by nine years to 82.6 years for women, and by ten years to 77.5 years for men. This equates to an increase of more than two years per decade. Life expectancy is a general measure of the population health and is therefore highly relevant to public health.
With the changing disease spectrum of the population, the spectrum of causes of death is also changing. Healthcare is being faced with new challenges, for example the increasing emergence of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.
At present, methodical and content-related questions on the analysis of the spectrum of causes of death and the changes in this spectrum are being addressed in the Robert Koch Institute.
In both women and men, the most common causes of death are cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer. Fortunately, the mortality rate is decreasing in both of these groups of diseases. This trend has contributed to an increase in life expectancy, which is one of the causes of the demographic change.
Further information
RKI publications server edoc: Publications in the Journal of Health Monitoring
Research projects, publications and reports on the German website