The Leading Causes of Death in Women
Heart disease kills more women than any cancer. These are the leading causes of death in women worldwide, in the UK and US, and how they change with age.
Picture a waiting room in a cardiology clinic. Most of the chairs are filled by men in their sixties, many of them with a wife beside them holding the appointment letter. In the corner sits a 62-year-old woman on her own. For three weeks she has had a strange tightness in her jaw, nausea and a tiredness she put down to looking after her grandchildren. Her GP almost sent her home with antacids.
That scene captures a stubborn misunderstanding. Ask most people what women die of and they will say breast cancer. It is a serious and common disease, but it is not the leading cause of death in women anywhere in the developed world. Heart disease and stroke kill far more women every year, and women's heart attacks are still more likely to be missed. You can watch the global death toll rise in real time on our live death counter, and this article looks at the female half of it.
The headline numbers
Roughly 62 million people die worldwide each year, and women account for a little under half of them, around 28 to 29 million. Women outlive men in every country on earth, by about five years on average globally, so women's deaths are concentrated even more heavily in old age.
| Measure | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Approx. deaths per year (world) | ~28 to 29 million | ~32 to 33 million |
| Approx. deaths per day (world) | ~78,000 | ~90,000 |
| Global life expectancy at birth | ~73.8 years | ~69.0 years |
| Share of deaths at age 70 and over | Over half | Under half |
The reasons women live longer, from biology to behaviour, are set out in why men die younger than women. This article is about what women die of when they do.
The leading causes of death in women worldwide
Here are the biggest killers of women globally, based on the World Health Organization's Global Health Estimates.
| Rank | Cause (women, world) | Approx. deaths per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ischaemic heart disease | ~3,900,000 |
| 2 | Stroke | ~3,200,000 |
| 3 | Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) | ~1,500,000 |
| 4 | Lower respiratory infections | ~1,200,000 |
| 5 | Alzheimer's and other dementias | ~1,100,000 |
| 6 | Neonatal conditions (baby girls) | ~800,000 |
| 7 | Diabetes | ~750,000 |
| 8 | Breast cancer | ~670,000 |
| 9 | Kidney diseases | ~650,000 |
| 10 | Diarrhoeal diseases | ~600,000 |
Rounded from WHO Global Health Estimates and GLOBOCAN 2022. Ranks for causes in the 600,000 to 800,000 range shift between years and sources, so treat the lower half of the table as approximate.
Heart disease and stroke together kill around 7 million women a year, roughly one in four female deaths. That is about ten times the number of women who die of breast cancer. Women are also slightly more likely than men to die of stroke, partly because they live longer and partly because of risks linked to pregnancy, the contraceptive pill in smokers, migraine with aura and atrial fibrillation in older age. The full global picture is on our cardiovascular causes page.
Why women's heart disease is missed
Heart attacks in women are more likely to present with symptoms other than the classic crushing chest pain: breathlessness, nausea, jaw, back or arm pain, and unusual fatigue. Studies from the UK and elsewhere have found that women are more likely to be misdiagnosed at first, and less likely to receive guideline treatments such as stents and statins.
| Finding | What the research shows |
|---|---|
| Initial misdiagnosis of heart attack | Women around 50% more likely than men (University of Leeds study) |
| Women in heart trials | Historically under-represented, often under a third of participants |
| Time to treatment | On average longer for women than men |
| Awareness | Many women still name breast cancer as their biggest health risk |
The British Heart Foundation estimates that heart and circulatory diseases kill around twice as many women in the UK as breast cancer. We cover the warning signs that can appear weeks before an attack in heart attack warning signs your body shows a month before.
Cancers that kill women
Cancer as a whole is the second biggest killer of women after cardiovascular disease. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, but lung cancer kills almost as many, and in many wealthy countries it kills more.
| Cancer | Approx. female deaths per year (world, 2022) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Breast | ~670,000 | Most common female cancer worldwide |
| Lung | ~600,000 | Leading cancer killer of women in the UK and US |
| Colorectal | ~400,000 | Screening can prevent many deaths |
| Cervical | ~350,000 | Almost entirely preventable with HPV vaccine and screening |
| Stomach and liver | ~250,000 each | Higher in East Asia |
| Ovarian | ~200,000 | Often diagnosed late |
Approximate figures from GLOBOCAN 2022 (International Agency for Research on Cancer).
Cervical cancer stands out. Around nine in ten of its deaths happen in low and middle-income countries, and it is close to entirely preventable with HPV vaccination and screening. The WHO has a strategy to eliminate it as a public health problem this century. You can find the wider picture in how many people die from cancer every day, on our cancer page, and in the dedicated how many people die from breast cancer every day.
Deaths only women face
Some deaths are unique to women. The largest group is maternal death, from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
| Measure | Approx. figure |
|---|---|
| Maternal deaths worldwide (2023, WHO) | ~260,000 |
| Per day | ~700 |
| Share in sub-Saharan Africa | ~70% |
| Main causes | Severe bleeding, infection, high blood pressure in pregnancy, unsafe abortion |
| Lifetime risk in the poorest countries | As high as 1 in 40 |
| Lifetime risk in the UK or Western Europe | Around 1 in several thousand |
Most of these deaths are preventable with skilled care during birth and access to emergency treatment. Progress was fast between 2000 and about 2015 and has slowed since. Our maternal mortality page tracks the global count, and the full story is in how many women die in childbirth every day.
Women in the UK and the US
In wealthy countries, the female list is shaped even more strongly by old age.
| Rank | Women in England and Wales (ONS) | Women in the United States (CDC) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dementia and Alzheimer's disease | Heart disease |
| 2 | Ischaemic heart disease | Cancer |
| 3 | Stroke | Stroke |
| 4 | Chronic lower respiratory diseases | Chronic lower respiratory disease |
| 5 | Influenza and pneumonia | Alzheimer's disease |
In England and Wales, dementia has been the leading cause of death in women for over a decade, accounting for roughly one in seven female deaths. That is partly a consequence of success: women survive heart disease and live long enough to develop dementia. About two thirds of people living with dementia in the UK are women. See dementia deaths have doubled in 20 years and our dementia page.
The country rankings in full are in the leading causes of death in the UK and the leading causes of death in the US.
How the leading cause changes with age
The overall list is dominated by older women. Look at women of different ages and the top cause changes several times.
| Age group | Leading cause for women (high-income countries) | Leading cause for women (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|
| 15 to 29 | Suicide, road injuries | Maternal conditions, suicide, road injuries |
| 30 to 49 | Breast cancer | HIV/AIDS (in Africa), breast cancer, maternal conditions |
| 50 to 69 | Lung or breast cancer | Ischaemic heart disease, stroke |
| 70 to 84 | Ischaemic heart disease | Ischaemic heart disease, stroke |
| 85 and over | Dementia | Ischaemic heart disease, stroke, dementia |
Pattern drawn from ONS age-specific leading causes and WHO estimates; exact order varies between countries.
For women in their thirties and forties in Britain, breast cancer is the most common cause of death, which is why screening and prompt checks of any new lump matter so much. By the sixties, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer catch up. Our age group pages show the overall pattern for each band.
The female health gap
Women live longer than men, but they spend more of those years in poor health. Globally, women's healthy life expectancy is only around two to three years higher than men's, despite their roughly five-year lead in total lifespan. Conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, depression and dementia mean many women spend a decade or more of later life with significant illness or disability.
| Measure (global, approx.) | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Life expectancy at birth | ~73.8 | ~69.0 |
| Healthy life expectancy | ~64 | ~62 |
| Years lived in poor health | ~10 | ~7 |
Approximate, based on WHO healthy life expectancy (HALE) estimates; figures fell slightly in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic.
We look at this gap, and how it varies by country, in healthy life expectancy vs life expectancy.
What reduces risk most
Many of the leading causes of death in women share the same risk factors, which means a few changes reduce several risks at once.
| Action | Causes it helps prevent |
|---|---|
| Not smoking, or stopping | Heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, COPD, cervical cancer |
| Blood pressure checks | Stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, vascular dementia |
| Breast, cervical and bowel screening | Breast, cervical and colorectal cancer |
| HPV vaccination | Cervical cancer |
| Regular physical activity | Heart disease, diabetes, breast and bowel cancer, dementia |
| Limiting alcohol | Breast cancer, liver disease, injuries |
Even modest alcohol intake raises breast cancer risk, a link many women are not aware of. More on that is on our alcohol page. To see how your own habits add up, try the risk calculator or estimate your lifespan with the Death Clock.
While you were reading this
You have spent about 12 minutes with this article. In that time, around 650 women have died worldwide. Roughly 90 of them died of heart disease and about 75 of stroke. Around 15 died of breast cancer. Around 6 died in pregnancy or childbirth, almost all of them in places where a skilled midwife or a blood transfusion would have saved them.
Across both sexes, more than 1,400 people died in those same 12 minutes. You can watch the total rise in real time on our live death counter, or explore every major cause on our causes of death page.
Data sources: World Health Organization (Global Health Estimates, World Health Statistics, Trends in Maternal Mortality), International Agency for Research on Cancer (GLOBOCAN 2022), Office for National Statistics, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NCHS), British Heart Foundation, Alzheimer's Society, Wu et al. (University of Leeds) on heart attack misdiagnosis. Figures are rounded and approximate; rankings vary between years and sources. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.
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