Estimated and actual causes of death worldwide 2019

According to the findings of a survey by IPSOS, worldwide people generally underestimate the proportion of deaths from cardiovascular diseases and cancer, two of the leading causes of death worldwide. It was found that on average respondents thought cardiovascular diseases accounted for just 11 percent of deaths worldwide, when in reality cardiovascular diseases account for 32 percent of deaths. This statistic shows the actual vs public estimates for causes of death worldwide as of 2019.

Actual and public estimates of causes of death worldwide as of 2019*

Characteristic	Actual	Estimate
Cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease	32%	11%
Cancer	24%	15%
Neurological disorders	9%	5%
Lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia	6%	5%
Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma	5%	6%
Diabetes and kidney diseases	5%	7%
Digestive diseases	5%	6%
Acciental deaths such as drowning	3%	7%
Transport injuries	2%	10%
Suicide	2%	7%
HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections	1%	5%
Interpersonal violence	1%	8%
Substance use disorders	1%	8%
Terrorism and conflict	0%	5%

Loading statistic...

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

February 2020

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

November 22 to December 6, 2019

Number of respondents

around 16,000

Age group

16-74 years

Method of interview

Online panel

Supplementary notes

* The main source of ‘actual’ data for causes of death around the world is the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database for 2017. Please see http://perils.ipsos.com/ for full details of all sources.

Citation formats