A total of 985,572 people died in Germany in 2020. That is almost five percent more than in 2019. Corona disease was the cause of four percent of the deceased.
Wiesbaden – With a total of 985,572 deaths in Germany, the number of deaths in 2020 has increased by around 4.9 percent compared to 2019. The Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday (November 4th, 2021). One of the reasons for the increase in the number of deaths in the first year of the pandemic is almost 40,000 people who were infected with the coronavirus as the cause of death, according to the statistics office.
Of the 492,797 men and 492,775 women, the majority, around 34 percent, died of heart or circulatory disease – with 338,001 deceased (93 percent of them over 65 years of age), cardiovascular diseases are still the most common cause of death in Germany. 44,529 people died of heart attacks alone, 59 percent of them men.
Increase in the number of deaths in Germany also due to Corona: In 39,758, infection was the cause
According to the Federal Statistical Office, cancer is the second most common cause of death with 23.5 percent. 231,271 people died in Germany as a result of cancer. 54 percent of the cancer deaths were men, 46 percent women.
One of the reasons for the increase in the number of deaths is also the deceased, for whom the cause of death can be traced back to an infection with the coronavirus, namely 39,758 people and thus around four percent of the deceased. “This number does not include those cases in which Covid-19 was documented by the corpse-examining doctor on the death certificate as a concomitant disease,” said the statistical office.
Study examines the number of deaths in the Corona year 2020: Life expectancy in Germany is falling slightly
In parallel to the statistics on the number of deaths in Germany, the results of a study on life expectancy were also published in Rostock. According to the Catholic news agency, this had calculated the data of 37 countries with average high and middle incomes for 2020 and examined how the corona pandemic had affected mortality in the year.
According to the study, life expectancy decreased in 2020 in 31 out of 37 countries. According to the study, life expectancy fell most in Russia, where statistically calculated men lost 2.33 years and women 2.14 years. In second place in this analysis is the USA, where the average life expectancy for men fell by 2.27 years and that of women by 1.61 years. In the statistics, Germany ranks 30th with a loss of 0.36 years of life. Men lost 0.43 and women 0.38 years of life.
Death numbers in Germany: the number of suicides increased by 1.8 percent
According to the statistics, 4.2 percent or 41,794 of all deaths in Germany in 2020 were due to a “non-natural cause of death” such as an injury or poisoning, about as many as in the previous year (41,779). In 17,211 of these cases (49 percent men and 51 percent women), a fall was the cause of death.
9,206 people ended their lives by suicide, three quarters (75 percent) of them were men and one quarter (25 percent) were women. Compared to the previous year, the number of suicides was slightly higher with an increase of 1.8 percent. There were 9,041 cases in 2019. (ska / dpa / kna)
