Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Health, Medicine

While in the EU on average 26% of deaths are caused by cancer, in Estonia the percentage is 24, Eurostat said citing data from 2013.

The biggest number of deaths caused by cancer were registered in Slovenia, the Netherlands and Ireland – respectively 32%, 31% and 30%. The smallest number of cancer deaths were registered in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania at 17%, 19% and 20%.

Of Estonians aged 65 years or older 23% died of cancer in 2013 which is the same percentage as in the EU on average, while 26% of people younger than 65 died of cancer or 11 percentage points less than in the EU on average. Only in Lithuania and Latvia, the share of people younger than 65 dying of cancer is smaller than in Estonia – respectively 23% and 24%.

In 2013, a total of 3,682 people died of cancer in Estonia, including 1,980 men and 1,702 women.

Generally more men die of cancer than women, and the biggest gender gap was registered in Greece and Spain where 61% of all people who died of cancer were men.