In 2021, a total of 1,023,687 people died in Germany, 515,559 men and 508,128 women.
The number of deaths rose by 3.9 percent compared to the previous year.
According to the cause of death statistics published today by the Federal Statistical Office, the most common cause of death in 2021 was cardiovascular disease, accounting for a good third of all deaths.
Almost a quarter died from cancer
53 percent of those who died from cardiovascular disease were women.
As in previous years, the second most common cause of death was cancer: 22.4 percent of all those who died died of cancer in 2021, 54 percent of them men.
Striking in the statistics for 2021: A total of 71,331 people died from Covid-19 as the underlying disease.
This means that Covid-19 was the main cause of death in 7 percent of all deaths, which corresponds to an increase of 79 percent compared to the previous year.
This strong increase can be explained, among other things, by the fact that not all the deceased were examined for a Covid-19 infection directly from March 2020, but above all by the fact that in Germany 2020 the number of deaths from and with Covid-19 only increased from the end of the year -Infection occurred.
Also in connection with Corona and the increasing number of reports from psychiatrists and psychotherapists soon after the beginning of the pandemic about a sudden increase in mental health problems in the population, there were speculations about a resulting increase in suicides.
The figures for 2021 show that at least this concern was unfounded.
The number of suicides remained almost constant at 9215 (2020: 9206 cases).
In 2019, 9,041 people took their own lives;
that was the lowest number since records began more than 40 years ago.
For comparison: 20 years ago, around 13,458 suicides were recorded.
In 2021, almost three quarters of those who died by suicide were men, and just over a quarter were women.