Causes of death (terminated in Statistics Norway), 2010

Cardiovascular diseases and cancer caused 6 out of 10 deaths. Ischemic heart disease was the most common among cardiovascular diseases, respectively 2 800 men and 2 400 women died of this cause. More men than women younger than 65 years died of ischemic heart disease.

Great gender difference in death by ischemic heart diseases

The use of the standard death rate (per 100 000 inhabitants) in the age group 65 years and older shows a decreasing number of deaths by ischemic heart diseases in the countries of the European Union (EU) and in Norway. These heart diseases are still the main cause of death in this age group.

Cancer is the main cause of death for those younger than 65 years old. It is, however, ischemic heart diseases that display the largest difference between men and women in this age group in the EU countries in the years 2006-2008: Ischemic heart diseases caused four times more deaths for men than women in the age group younger than 65 years. For more information, see Eurostat .

Death from cancer was most frequently caused by cancer in the digestive organs or in the lungs

For deaths by cancer the two main causes were cancer in the digestive organs or the respiratory system. Half of the 3 900 deaths registered due to respiratory diseases were caused by chronic lower respiratory diseases.

750 deaths were caused by alcohol, narcotics and drugs, and of these deaths 370 were due to alcoholic related diseases. Poisoning caused 360 deaths in 2010.

Death certificate was missing for a total of 730 deaths

The statistics covers all persons registered by the National Population Register as inhabitants of Norway at the time of their death, regardless of whether the death took place in Norway or abroad. Among the deaths in 2010 a death certificate was missing for 730 persons, or in 1.8 per cent of the cases. Half of the missing certificates were due to deaths abroad (385). Inadequate reporting from the chief municipal medical officer is also a problem. Statistics Norway forwarded 2 000 reminders for missing certificates. Seven out of ten dying abroad were men, mainly in the age group of 45-74 years.

Quality control

In cases of unsatisfactorily filled-in death certificates, Statistics Norway sends supplementary questions to the certifier to ensure the cause of death and improve the quality of the Cause of death registry. In addition a medical adviser is applied. Statistics Norway collects autopsies from forensic institutes and hospitals and also cooperates with The Norwegian Institute of Public Health and The Cancer registry of Norway. The frequency of autopsies showed a decrease in numbers last year.

Tables:

• Table 1 Deaths by underlying cause of death. The whole country. 1991-2010
• Table 2 Deaths by underlying cause of death. Age standarized.The whole country. 5 tear groups. 1986-2010
• Table 3 Background information on the data. 2001-2010