Neoplasm common killer of working-age people

About 7,400 persons of working age (aged 15 to 64) died in 2019, according to the Statistics Finland.

The vast majority of them, two-thirds, were men. More than half of the deceased working-age people died of neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory system.

Every tenth, or 700 persons, died in accidents and nearly 600 persons committed suicide.

In Finland, ever fewer people of working age die. While still at the beginning of the 2000s an average of more than 10,000 persons of working age died each year.

During 2019, a total of 54,000 persons died with the share of working-age people being 14 per cent.

The age-standardised mortality of working-age people relative to the population’s age structure and number has decreased by over one quarter over the past 10 years.

The decrease in mortality has been mostly due to lower mortality from diseases of the circulatory system and neoplasms, but positive development has occurred in all most common cause of death groups.

In 2019, mortality among the working-age people decreased further for both men and women, by five per cent year on year.

Since 2001, more persons of working age died of neoplasms than of diseases of the circulatory system. In 2019, neoplasms caused 2,200 deaths among the working-age people. There were almost as many men (1,200) as women (1,000) among the deceased.

The most common cancer resulting in death for working-age women was breast cancer, which caused the death of over 200 women (Appendix table 1c). The most typical cancer among working-age men, in turn, is lung cancer.

Neoplasm mortality of working-age people has decreased for both men and women by 20 per cent in 10 years. The lower mortality is particularly due to the positive development of lung cancer mortality among working-age people.