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Geneva – The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on global health statistics, but non-communicable diseases continue to account for around three-quarters of all deaths.

In 2019, around 74 percent of deaths worldwide were due to ischemic heart disease and stroke, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and diabetes, according to new health statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO). During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, around 78 percent of deaths were not related to a corona infection.

In 2020, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death worldwide, and in 2021 it was the second leading cause. Because so many people have died from it, life expectancy at birth has statistically fallen. In 2021, it fell by 1.8 years to 71.4 years compared to 2019. It was last at this level in 2012, and it has risen steadily since then. This is a statistical calculation and does not refer to the individual life expectancy of a baby born in 2021.

By May 2024, the WHO had reported a total of around seven million deaths worldwide in connection with COVID-19. However, the number of unreported cases is enormous, partly because not all deaths are registered or because causes such as heart or organ failure are often noted, which could have been caused by a corona infection. A year ago, the WHO chief estimated the true number of corona deaths worldwide at 20 million.

By 2022, more than one billion people over the age of five in the world were severely overweight (obese), it was also said. 37 million children under the age of five were also overweight.

At the same time, half a billion people are underweight and around 200 million children under the age of five are too small for their age or too thin for their height – a disadvantage that hinders the development of many of them throughout their lives. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de