Of the 66,971 people who died in the country that year, 31.4% were victims of heart diseases, while 25.8% succumbed to cancer. Other significant causes included dementia (9.8%) and respiratory diseases (6.9%); accidents and suicides accounted for about 5% each.
In the over-80s group, which represented three-fifths of all deaths recorded in 2017, the biggest cause was cardiovascular. Among 40-80-year-olds, cancer was highest, while between 16 and 18 the biggest risks are suicide or accidents.
Overall deaths slightly increased in 2017, the stats office said, by 3%. This is somewhat in line with recent annual increases, which are in turn affected by the fact that the Swiss population is aging. The office also pointed to the “flu wave” of early 2017 that led to the deaths of some 1,500 over-65 year olds in the space of just six weeks.
Life expectancy in 2017 was 81.4 for men and 85.4 for women: practically unchanged from 2016, but an increase of respectively two years and 1.2 years on a decade before.
Suicides meanwhile slightly increased: 773 men and 270 women took their own life, 26 more than in 2016. Women were more inclined to take the assisted suicide option; 596 of them did so, along with 413 men.
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Demographics
Want to live longer? Try Switzerland or Spain
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Swiss men have world’s longest life expectancy
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The World Health Organization (WHO) life expectancy statistics, presented Wednesday in Geneva, place Swiss men above Icelanders, who held the top spot in the report’s last edition in 2012. Boys born in Switzerland can expect to live to the age of 81.3 years, considerably above the world average of 69.1 years. Swiss women live to…
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Since the beginning of the 20th century life expectancy from birth in Switzerland has almost doubled. In this period, it rose from 49 to 85 for women and from 46 to 81 for men. According the World Health Statistics 2015 report, Switzerland is just behind Japan with an average life expectancy of 83 years. That’s…
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International statistics add context to the interconnected debates in Switzerland over retirement age, longevity and pensions.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.