"Globally, non-communicable diseases are the most common causes of death

The chart shows what people died from globally, in 2019. Each box represents one cause, and its size is proportional to the number of deaths it caused.

The most common causes of death globally — shown in blue — were from ‘non-communicable diseases’.

This includes heart disease, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases. They tend to develop gradually over time and aren’t infectious themselves.

Heart diseases were the most common cause, responsible for a third of all deaths globally. Cancers were in second, causing almost one-in-five deaths. Taken together, heart diseases and cancers are the cause of every second death.

In red are infectious diseases, which are responsible for around 1-in-7 deaths. These include pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria.

A smaller share – around 4% – was from neonatal and maternal deaths. A similar share was from accidents.

Violent deaths were less common, with 1.3% dying from suicide and less than 1% dying from interpersonal violence such as homicide or battle deaths.