In the EU, the standardised death rate for cancer was 235.4 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2021, lower than the rate for circulatory diseases, but higher than the rate for other causes of death, including COVID-19.
In Latvia, the cancer death rate was 283.5 per 100 000 inhabitants, behind only Croatia (308.2) and Hungary (309.9).
However, Latvia's figure is shaped by the large difference between the rates for women (205.6) and men (435.8). The figure for men is the highest in the EU, with only Estonia (412.1) and Hungary (415.0) also recording a rate in excess of 400.
An analysis by sex and by age shows large differences in standardised death rates for cancer across the EU: for males the rate (307.5 per 100 000 male inhabitants) was 67 % higher than that for females (184.0 per 100 000 female inhabitants), while the rate for persons aged 65 years and over was 14 times as high as it was for younger persons (those aged less than 65 years).
