With 1,602 deaths per 100,000, Bulgaria ranks first in mortality in the EU in 2016. Bulgaria is followed by Latvia and Romania (1476), Lithuania (1455) and Hungary (1425). This is shows the data of a statistical analysis of the Eurostat statistical office published today.

At the opposite end of the EU's lowest mortality scale is Spain (829 per 100,000 inhabitants), France (838), Italy (843), Malta (882), Luxembourg (905) and Sweden (913).

On average, for the EU, the mortality rate is 1002 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016. In the year 2016, 5.1 million people died in the EU - about 80,000 less than the previous year. One third of these deaths are among people under the age of 75, 1.5 million died between 75 and 85 years of age.

Heart strokes, insultus (1.8 million deaths) and cancer (1.3 million) are the main causes of death in the European Union in 2016. Diseases associated with the bloodstream are also a main cause of death cases in all Member States, except in Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the UK, where it is cancer.

The third major cause of death in the EU is respiratory illnesses responsible for 422,000 deaths in 2016

A significant proportion is due to incidents and external causes - 237,000, digestive system problems (222,000), mental and behavioral dementia (220,000) and nervous system diseases, including Alzheimer's (219,000).