Netherlands: causes of death 2021

In 2020, just over 150,000 people passed away in the Netherlands. The most common causes of death were neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory system as well as mental and behavioural disorders. By comparison, fatal diseases of the skin and complications of pregnancy and childbirth were not very common.

 Differences between men and women

  The two most important causes of death in the Netherlands were the same for both genders, although neoplasms were more common among men, and diseases of the circulatory system were more common among women. Some causes of death were more common among a certain gender though. For example, nearly twice as many women as men died from musculoskeletal diseases (742, vs. 385)

 Comparison with neighboring Belgium

  In neighboring country Belgium, the most common causes of death were also cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms. In Belgium, nearly 28,600 people died of neoplasms in 2016, the most recent available year. In the Netherlands, this was the cause of death of just over 46,500 people.

Causes of death in the Netherlands in 2021

Cause of death	Number of deaths
Neoplasms	47,107
Diseases of the circulatory system	37,446
Mental and behavioural disorders	11,771
Diseases of the respiratory system	10,119
External causes of injury and poisoning	9,266
Symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions	9,248
Diseases of the nervous system	8,279
Diseases of the digestive system	4,934
Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases	3,676
Diseases of the genitourinary system	3,633
Infectious and parasitic diseases	2,975
Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue	1,097
Blood/bloodforming organs and immune mechanism diseases	617
Congenital anomalies	434
Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue	387
Conditions originating in the perinatal period	370
Complications of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium	5