Cancer remains No. 1 cause of death in Taiwan for 44th straight year

Taipei, June 22 (CNA) Cancer was the leading cause of death in Taiwan in 2025, maintaining that trend for the 44th consecutive year, while the overall number of deaths in the country fell for a third straight year, according to statistics released Monday by the health ministry.

A total of 199,576 people died in Taiwan last year, down 1,807 from the previous year, resulting in a mortality rate of 854.7 per 100,000 people, a decline of 0.6 percent, said Lu Shu-chun (呂淑君), a section chief at the Ministry of Health and Welfare's (MOHW) Department of Statistics, at a news briefing.

Cancer, heart disease, and pneumonia remained the top three causes of death in Taiwan in 2025, followed by cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, hypertensive disease, accidents, nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis, chronic lower respiratory disease, and suicide, the MOHW data showed.

That data was mostly unchanged from a year earlier, except that kidney diseases and chronic lower respiratory disease swapped places at eighth and ninth, respectively, Lu said.

Suicide remained the 10th leading cause of death, while COVID-19 fell from 14th to 19th, he said.

The statistics showed that suicide claimed 3,951 lives in 2025, down 2.7 percent from the previous year.

Although deaths by suicide declined among people 15-24, 25-44 and those 65 and older, they increased slightly among children under 15 and adults aged 45-64, according to the MOHW.

Cancer claimed 54,838 lives in 2025 -- 32,537 men and 22,301 women -- accounting for 27.5 percent of all deaths, the data showed.

The cancer mortality rate was 234.9 deaths per 100,000 people, while the age-standardized cancer mortality rate declined from 113.3 to 111.5 per 100,000 people, the statistics indicated.

The average annual increase of cancer deaths over the past decade has been 1.5 percent, according to the MOHW.

In 2025, lung, liver and colorectal malignancies remained the main causes of cancer deaths for the 22nd consecutive year, Lu said.

The rankings of Taiwan's 10 deadliest cancers were unchanged from the previous year, the data showed. They were cancers of the trachea, bronchus and lung; liver and intrahepatic bile ducts; colon, rectum and anus; female breast; prostate; oral cavity; pancreas; stomach; esophagus; and ovary, in that order, according to the MOHW.

Age-standardized mortality rates declined from a year earlier for all 10 types, except lung, pancreatic and ovarian cancers, which rose by 3.5 percent, 8.2 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively, the data showed.

Lin Li-ju (林莉茹), deputy director-general of the MOHW's Health Promotion Administration, attributed the increases partly to long-term exposure to cancer risk factors and Taiwan's aging population -- now nearly one in five people aged 65 or older.

Currently, there are no effective, universally recommended screening tools for pancreatic and ovarian cancers, and routine screening of asymptomatic people is not recommended, she said, adding that long-term monitoring would be needed to determine whether the upward trend persists.

Meanwhile, age-standardized mortality rates declined for female breast, oral and stomach cancers; increased for lung and cervical cancers; and remained unchanged for colorectal cancer, all of which are covered by government screening programs, Lu said.