After two years of intense circulation, Covid had taken up less space in 2022. But France then experienced a strong resurgence of other respiratory diseases, which had become the third cause of death behind cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
“Tumors and diseases of the circulatory system (ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases) remain the two leading causes of death, but diseases of the respiratory system (…) become the third,” shows a reference study, published Tuesday by the French Public Health Agency, Inserm and the Statistics Directorate of the Ministry of Health (Drees).
Every year, these scientists take stock of the main causes of mortality in France with a slight delay: in this case it is the year 2022.
More than 673,000 deaths were recorded, “a higher number than in 2020 and 2021, two years which were nevertheless very strongly marked by the Covid-19 epidemic”, observed to AFP Manon Cadillac (Drees).
The mortality rate has increased in particular because of “an increase in respiratory diseases linked to winter epidemics, Covid-19, still present despite its decline, an increase in external causes (accidents, falls, etc.)” , summarized Anne Fouillet of Public Health France to AFP.
The leading cause of death in France, however, remains cancer.
Responsible for more than a quarter of deaths in 2022, tumors killed slightly more men than women and, in more than half of the cases, affected seniors aged 65 to 84.
Cancer mortality, however, continued its downward trend, even if it stabilized among women. Tumors of the lung, colorectal, breast, pancreas and prostate remained the most fatal.
In second place: cardiovascular diseases, the cause of more than a fifth of deaths.
