Cancer is the top cause of death in Taiwan, followed by heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. That was the word from the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Wednesday.
Following those diseases were diabetes, accidents, chronic lower respiratory disease, high blood pressure, chronic liver disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney disease. Suicide was the 11th most prevalent cause of death.
Health official Chen Min said Taiwan’s society is aging, so many of the top causes of death are chronic diseases.
"In the past year, the top ten causes were responsible for 78% of the deaths in Taiwan," said Chen. " Most of these were chronic diseases and the top was malignant tumors. Tumors cause 28% of the deaths. Following that are chronic illnesses like heart disease and cerebrovascular disease."
Last year, a person died every three minutes and 13 seconds in Taiwan. That’s 11 seconds faster than the year before. The number of people who died last year also increased by over 8,000 over the year before to 162,911. The ministry is studying the causes of these trends.