Deaths: most frequent causes

Overall, the most common causes of death in Scotland are cancer and coronary heart disease. However, a large number of different diagnoses make up these broad groupings, and it is of interest to look at the most frequently occurring individual causes of death. 

Chart 1
 Close  shows the ten most common causes of death for all ages in Scotland 2023. The most common underlying cause of death was ischaemic heart diseases (accounting for 11.0% of the total), followed by cerebrovascular disease (6.0% of the total), and lung cancer (6.0% of the total).

It is important to understand which causes contribute to early death so that public health practitioners and policy-makers can evaluate how limited resources should be used for maximum effect (see section on Burden of disease). Chart 2 shows the ten most common causes of death for those under 75 years old in Scotland 2023. There were 22,857 deaths in total in 2023 of those under 75 years old. Similar to deaths at all ages, ischaemic health diseases was the leading underlying cause of death (accounting for 12.4% of the total). Other common causes of death include lung cancer and accidents.

International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes for the most common causes of death - Ischaemic heart diseases (I20-25), COVID-19 (U07), Cerebrovascular diseases (I60-69), Dementia (F01, F03), Malignant neoplasms of trachea bronchus and lung (C33-34), Chronic lower respiratory diseases (J40-47), Alzheimer's Disease (G30), Other heart diseases (I30-33, I39-52), Accidents (not including poisonings, V01-X39, X50-59, Y85-86), Accidental poisonings including drug abuse (X40-49), Chronic liver disease (K70, K73-74), Intentional self-harm (X60-84, Y87), Malignant neoplasm of breast (C50), Diabetes (E10-14), Pneumonia (J12-18).