In 2015, around 56 million people died. 27 million of those deaths were registered with a cause of death. In 2005, only a third of deaths had a known and recorded reason. These are data from the World Health Statistics 2017 report, just published by the World Health Organization (WHO). An example: in China, Turkey and Iran 90% of deaths are recorded in detail. In 1999, that percentage was 5%.
These figures – always referring to 2015 – are not mere accounting. Progress in the collection of information in many states draws an accurate map of mortality and health indicators by countries and regions, and this facilitates the management of health systems and the improvement of living conditions, two of the pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN plan to build a more humane world in the coming years.
So we die
There is some data for optimism. In 2015, the mortality rate for children under five years of age was 43 per thousand, and that of newborns was 19 per thousand, which represents a drop compared to 2000 of 44 and 37%, respectively.
In the infectious diseases section, we find 1.1 million deaths from HIV, 1.4 from tuberculosis and 1.3 from hepatitis.
Cardiovascular diseases are the great global ally of the Grim Reaper: 17.7 million victims in 2015. Cancer killed 8.8 million humans, chronic respiratory ailments 3.9, and diabetes 1.6.
The harvest of violence
Although the media convey the image of a bloody and cruel world, violent acts are decreasing. In any case, they continue to be a scourge: in 2015 there were 468,000 murders , and four-fifths of the victims were men. But the homicide rate has fallen by 19% since 2000. Japan and Luxembourg are the countries with the lowest murder rates (0.3 and 0.4 per 100,000 inhabitants); and Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras which suffer the highest (51.7, 63.2 and 85.7, respectively). In Spain we are left with a rate of 0.8 cases per one hundred thousand people.
152,000 human beings died in wars and conflicts, which represents 0.3% of the total deaths in the world. It should be noted that the data does not include deaths caused by malnutrition, the spread of diseases or the collapse of health services attributable to wars.
In any case, it is significantly lower than the number of suicides (800,000) and the number of fatalities from traffic accidents: 1.25 million.
