Global Mortality in 2018
A snapshot of death rates, leading causes, and country rankings for 2018.
| # | Country | Death Rate | #1 Cause | Region |
|---|
The 2018 Astana Declaration recommitted the world to primary health care as the cornerstone of universal health coverage, 40 years after the original Alma-Ata Declaration. The Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced its tenth Ebola outbreak — and second-largest in history — compounded by armed conflict in eastern provinces. NCD-related mortality continued to rise in absolute terms as the global population aged.
In 2018, data from 221 countries reveals the leading causes of death by share: cardiovascular diseases (30.1%), cancers (neoplasms) (16.9%), lower respiratory infections (5.5%), digestive diseases (4.4%), chronic respiratory diseases (4.4%). These averages reflect the cross-country mean share of total deaths and highlight the dominant mortality patterns of the era.
Compared to 2010, the most significant shifts in the global mortality profile by 2018 include: cancers (neoplasms) increased by 1.1 percentage points (from 15.8% to 16.9%); enteric infections decreased by 0.7 percentage points (from 2.8% to 2.1%); neonatal disorders decreased by 0.7 percentage points (from 4.0% to 3.4%); diarrheal diseases decreased by 0.6 percentage points (from 2.5% to 1.9%). These changes reflect evolving risk factor exposures, demographic transitions, medical advances, and public health interventions across the world.
Global mortality statistics are compiled from multiple sources. High-income countries typically rely on national vital registration systems with medical certification of cause of death, while many low- and middle-income countries supplement incomplete civil registration with verbal autopsy surveys and hospital records. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) integrates these inputs using statistical modeling to produce comparable estimates across countries and years. The 'share of deaths' metric shown in the charts represents the proportion of all deaths in a given country-year attributed to each cause category, summing to approximately 100% across all causes. When comparing across years, small shifts of one to two percentage points may reflect updates in data sources, changes in diagnostic coding (such as ICD revision transitions), or improvements in modeling methodology rather than true epidemiological changes. Larger shifts — particularly those sustained over multiple consecutive years — are more likely to represent genuine trends in population health.