Health · Romania and the European Union · 2023
Between 45 and 59, men in Romania die more than twice as often as in the rest of the EU
In 2023, of every 100,000 men aged 45 to 49 living in Romania, 534 died. In the rest of the European Union, 260. The ratio is above 2 between 45 and 59, in 2023 as in 2019, before the pandemic. For women it is around 1.5 at almost every age.
The gap does not come from a single disease. For men aged 45–49, 38% of it comes from heart and circulatory disease, 23% from digestive disease (mostly the liver), 14% from cancers, 14% from respiratory disease, 11% from accidents and other external causes (suicide is as frequent as in the rest of the EU) and 5% from infections, including tuberculosis; a few chapters are slightly lower in Romania. Pick an age and sex to see people your age.
menwomen
People your age#
Pick a sex and age group. The numbers show how many of every 100,000 people of that age and sex died in 2023, in Romania and in the rest of the EU, and which causes make up the difference. They are not a calculation of any one person's risk.
Which causes make up the difference (extra deaths per 100,000):
By age#
The gap is small among the young, grows after 40, peaks between 45 and 59 and narrows at older ages. The pattern is almost the same in 2019, before the pandemic: the ratio for men was above 2 between 45 and 64.
For women the ratio stays between 1.4 and 1.6 at almost every age.
What they die of#
The same pattern appears across this series. For men aged 45–49, ischaemic heart disease alone makes 19% of the gap, chronic liver disease 16% and tuberculosis 3%. Some differences come from how death certificates are filled in; total deaths, however, do not depend on that.
In the same series: Infant pneumonia · Tuberculosis in Romania · Cirrhosis without a name
What these data do not show#
- Rates are for groups, not for one person. Smoking, chronic illness, work or access to a doctor change each person's risk a great deal.
- The cause is the one on the death certificate; countries fill in certificates differently. Total deaths do not depend on this.
- “Rest of the EU” is dominated by Germany, Italy, France and Spain (59% of the population). Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia have higher rates than Romania for men aged 45–49; Hungary much lower.
- Rates use the 1 January population, and Romania's 2023 population is estimated. If the resident population is overstated or some deaths abroad go unrecorded, Romania's rate comes out lower than it is, so the gap would more likely be understated.
- The data are for 2023 (the latest year with causes at Eurostat); 2019 is used as a pre-pandemic check.
How the analysis was done#
- Deaths by sex, 5-year age group and ICD-10 chapter: Eurostat, hlth_cd_aro (residents), 2019 and 2023. Population on 1 January: Eurostat demo_pjangroup.
- Rate = deaths per 100,000 people of that age group and sex. “Rest of the EU” = the other 26 countries, pooled deaths over pooled population.
- The gap by cause: Romania's rate minus the rest of the EU's, for each chapter; the chapters, with “other causes” (blood, skin, bones, kidneys, pregnancy, perinatal conditions, malformations), add up to the total. A chapter can have fewer deaths in Romania (a negative contribution). Each cell uses the same countries for the total and the chapters.
- A first analysis (heart disease, men aged 35–54, 2021–2023) showed the all-cause death rate was already 2.1 times higher, and the heart explained only part of the gap; so the page looks at all causes. The headline threshold, a ratio of at least 2 in both 2023 and 2019 (45–59), was set after that first analysis, before the split by cause.
Questions#
Does this mean I am twice as likely to die?
Not as a prediction for you. For all men aged 45–49 taken together, yes: the yearly rate is twice as high. Each person's risk depends on their health, habits and care.
Why mostly men aged 45–59?
The data show where the gap is, not why. At these ages heart disease, liver disease, cancers and injuries pile up, all more frequent in Romania.
Is it the pandemic?
No. In 2019 the ratio for men aged 45–49 was 2.2, and COVID-19 makes under 1% of the gap in 2023.
Sources#
All sources were opened on 1 November 2026.
- Eurostat, Causes of death by age group and sex, residents (hlth_cd_aro), 2019 and 2023.
- Eurostat, Population on 1 January by age group and sex (demo_pjangroup).