Skip to content

Number of Deaths by Leading Causes of Death, 2001 - 2023

Number of Deaths by Leading Causes of Death, 2001 - 2023

Classification of diseases and causes of death is based on the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) 10th Revision from 2001 onwards. The disease groups for the purpose of ranking causes of death have also been redefined based on the ICD 10th Revision, and new disease groups have been added. Figures from 2001 onwards may not be comparable with figures for previous years which were compiled based on the ICD 9th Revision. Therefore, figures before 2001 have been put down in a separate table.

Number of deaths by leading causes of death (based on ICD 10th Revision) : 2001 - 2023
List of ranking is based on the number of deaths in 2023.

Cause of Death 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023#
1. Malignant neoplasms (ICD10: C00-C97) 11406 11658 11510 11791 12310 12093 12316 12456 12839 13076 13241 13336 13589 13803 14316 14209 14354 14594 14871 14805 15108 14717 14865
2. Pneumonia (ICD10: J12-J18) 3026 3194 3877 3676 4291 4201 4978 5486 5312 5814 6211 6960 6830 7502 8004 8292 8032 8437 9271 9365 9832 10501 11333
3. Diseases of heart (ICD10: I00-I09, I11, I13, I20-I51) 4703 4969 5311 5866 5868 5619 6372 6777 6414 6636 6334 6283 5834 6405 6190 6201 6138 6088 6096 6561 6595 6791 7258
4. Cerebrovascular diseases (ICD10: I60-I69) 3130 3218 3462 3416 3434 3302 3513 3691 3443 3423 3339 3276 3252 3336 3259 3224 3124 3016 2970 3165 3126 3057 3048
5. Coronavirus diseases 2019* 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 125 70 9291 2594
6. External causes of morbidity and mortality† (ICD10: V01-Y89) 1844 2068 2044 2243 2150 1961 1854 1766 1938 1864 1567 1655 1860 1834 1993 1813 1697 1871 1848 2024 1983 1961 2377
7. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (ICD10: N00-N07, N17-N19, N25-N27) 1053 1055 1184 1182 1261 1287 1347 1419 1448 1493 1545 1629 1589 1684 1655 1706 1659 1622 1667 1721 1781 1809 1756
8. Dementia (ICD10: F01-F03) 252 289 256 276 283 288 317 495 638 767 753 904 999 1112 1145 1371 1455 1456 1490 1481 1498 1572 1537
9. Septicaemia (ICD10: A40-A41) 424 467 572 615 701 676 737 797 736 826 767 837 852 884 891 970 971 985 1065 1104 1249 1213 1329
10. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (ICD10: J40-J47) 2114 2075 2102 2123 2261 1924 2096 2103 1912 2093 1965 1981 1743 1742 1660 1639 1505 1379 1373 1159 1059 1125 1268
11. Diabetes mellitus (ICD10: E10-E14) 676 574 783 728 602 511 506 548 492 522 457 398 360 390 492 498 400 477 493 586 548 661 570
All other causes 4677 4749 5322 5405 5522 5553 5927 5992 5875 6185 6009 6413 6491 7018 7152 6739 6548 7553 7562 8557 8687 8859 8841
All causes 33305 34316 36423 37321 38683 37415 39963 41530 41047 42699 42188 43672 43399 45710 46757 46662 45883 47478 48706 50653 51536 61557 56776


Notes:
The figures are based on deaths registered under the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance (Cap. 174, Laws of Hong Kong) during the specified period.
The disease codes according to the classification are shown in brackets.
† According to the ICD 10th Revision, when the morbid condition is classifiable under Chapter XIX as "injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes", the codes under Chapter XX for "external causes of morbidity and mortality" should be used as the primary cause of death.
* In Hong Kong, deaths due to Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) was coded under the ICD-10 disease code J98.8, which includes certain specific respiratory disorders other than COVID-19. In the table, only registered deaths where COVID-19 was identified as the cause of death were included in the statistics corresponding to COVID-19. 
# Provisional figures.