Diseases of the circulatory system – including heart attacks, heart diseases, hypertensive diseases and diseases of pulmonary circulation – accounted for 32.4% of all deaths in the EU in 2022.
Diseases of the circulatory system were the leading cause of death in 78.5% (186 out of 237) of regions classified at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS).
There were 18 regions across the EU where diseases of the circulatory system accounted for at least half of all deaths.
The highest regional shares were in Bulgaria and Romania, where these diseases accounted for more than 50% of all deaths in every region. Yuzhen tsentralen in Bulgaria recorded the highest share (66.2%), followed by Sud-Vest Oltenia in Romania (65.1%).
Outside these 2 countries, the only other regions in the EU where diseases of the circulatory system accounted for at least 50% of all deaths were both regions in Lithuania, Latvia (single region at a NUTS 2 level) and the Dél-Alföld region in Hungary.
Source dataset: hlth_cd_asdr2
By contrast, there were 10 NUTS 2 level regions across the EU where diseases of the circulatory system accounted for less than 1 in 5 deaths in 2022. All these regions were located in France, with the lowest shares in the capital region of Ile-de-France (18.9%), the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (18.7%) and the outermost region of Martinique (18.3%).
This news item marks World Heart Day, commemorated annually on 29 September to raise awareness of cardiovascular diseases.
Would you like to know more about health statistics at the regional level?
You can read more about health statistics in the Eurostat regional yearbook – 2025 edition, also available as a set of Statistics Explained articles as well as in the health section of the interactive publication Regions in Europe.