Far fewer COVID-19 deaths in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021

Of the 170 thousand deaths in 2022, slightly less than half had neoplasms (28 percent) or cardiovascular diseases (23 percent) as the cause of death. This was followed by mortality due to mental disorders and diseases of the nervous system, which include dementia and Alzheimer's disease for instance (13 percent), and diseases of the respiratory system (8 percent). External causes of death accounted for 6 percent, while COVID-19 accounted for 5 percent.* The figures are provisional.

To better compare cause-of-death figures by year, the figures have also been standardised. This means population growth and ageing are taken into acount. The standardised figures paint a similar picture for almost all cause-of-death categories. Neoplasms show the long-term declining trend after standardisation (see also this news release).

Mortality due to respiratory diseases rose by a quarter

Whereas there were fewer deaths due to COVID-19 in 2022, a year-on-year increase was recorded in mortality due to various other cause-of-death categories. There were more deaths due to diseases of the respiratory system (+27 percent) and due to mental disorders and diseases of the nervous system (+10 percent). Mortality due to external causes of death rose as well (+13 percent), mainly caused by accidental falls.

There was also a slight rise (+4 percent) in mortality due to cardiovascular diseases. In addition, mortality due to other natural causes of death was slightly elevated. This is a highly diverse death cause category including, for example, old age.
In 2022, epidemic waves of influenza occurred both in the period mid-March to mid-May and from mid-December onwards. There was no epidemic wave in 2021. Last year’s waves may have contributed to the higher mortality due to respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders and diseases of the nervous system.

Declining COVID-19 mortality as of the second quarter

In the first quarter of 2022, on average nearly 1,200 people per month died due to COVID-19. COVID-19-mortality subsequently fell to an average of slightly over 500 deaths per month.

Some death cause categories show a seasonal pattern; for example, there are more deaths due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in the winter (first and fourth quarter). To a slightly smaller extent, this also applies to mortality due to mental disorders and diseases of the nervous system, including for example dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Furthermore, mortality related to the above three categories is often elevated during epidemic waves of influenza as well. For example, respiratory diseases accounted for more deaths in the second quarter of 2022 than one year previously, when there was no flu epidemic.

COVID-19 mortality lower than excess mortality

In 2022, there were 14.5 thousand more deaths than expected (see this news release). This excess mortality also exceeded COVID-19 mortality (8.2 thousand). It was the other way round in the preceding two years. Total COVID-19 mortality over the entire period of the pandemic stood at 48.0 thousand, slightly exceeding excess mortality (47.1 thousand).

The periods with excess mortality in 2020 and in 2021 largely coincided with relatively high COVID-19 mortality. There was lower excess mortality in 2022 than in the preceding two years, and it did not overlap consistently with relatively higher COVID-19 mortality. However, throughout 2022 there were far more weeks with excess mortality. The two epidemic waves of seasonal flu possibly played a role there. Only starting end of March did excess mortality occur weekly; a seasonal flu epidemic started in mid-March which lasted for thirteen weeks while a second flu epidemic began in mid-December 2022.