News release

From: The Lancet

Over 2.5 million people died suddenly from natural causes between 2010 and 2020 in Europe, study suggests

From 2010 to 2020, there were over 2.5 million sudden deaths – natural unexpected deaths occurring within one hour of symptoms starting - in 26 European countries*, suggests a new study published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe journal. 

Sudden death is most often due to cardiac causes including coronary artery disease leading to heart failure, however it also includes non-cardiac causes such as severe brain bleeds, drug overdoses or pulmonary embolisms (a sudden blockage in a lung artery). There is a lot of variation in how sudden death is defined and reported, leading to challenges in gathering accurate and up-to-date data on sudden death trends.

In this study, authors looked at data from the WHO mortality dataset for 2010 to 2020. They found during this decade there were 2,583,559 attributed sudden death (1,935,741 men and 647,818 women) in 26 European countries. Sudden death accounted for almost 5% of all deaths during this period, corresponding to approximately one sudden death every 2.2 minutes across the countries considered. 

Over the decade, the rate of sudden deaths increased by roughly 30%, from approximately 38 people per 1 million in 2010 to 50 people per 1 million in 2020. Although most sudden deaths were in men, there was a greater increase in the rate of sudden death amongst women from 2010 to 2020. There were significant differences across Europe, with declines in the rate of sudden death over the decade in in Western Europe but notable increases in Spain, Germany, Poland, and Romania.

Authors say their findings highlight that sudden death continues to represent an important source of mortality in Europe. They study did not look at reasons behind the trend, but authors hypothesis that differences in cardiovascular risk profiles, healthcare access, and emergency response systems may contribute.