An average of 1,862 deaths registered per day

In 2022, a total of 679,766 deaths were registered in the Philippines, a decrease of 22.7 percent from 879,429 in 2021. This is equivalent to a crude death rate¹ of 6.1, or six deaths per 1,000 population in 2022. This corresponds to an average of 1,862 deaths per day, which translates to 78 deaths per hour or about 1 death per minute.

The number of registered deaths from 2013 to 2022 has experienced dynamic shifts in which the years 2017, 2020 and 2022 showed a decreasing trend. The increase during the ten-year period was 27.7 percent, from 532,176 in 2013 to 679,766 in 2022. (Figure 1 and Table 1)

Highest number of deaths reported in CALABARZON

The highest number of registered deaths by usual residence occurred in CALABARZON with 98,590 (14.5% share), followed by Central Luzon with 79,550 (11.7% share), and National Capital Region (NCR) with 78,917 (11.6% share). The combined share of these three regions accounted for more than one-third (37.8% share) of the total registered deaths in 2022.

On the other hand, the three regions with the least number of registered deaths were the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) with 6,500 (1.0% share), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 9,749 (1.4% share), and Caraga Region with 18,793 (2.8% share). These regions accounted for only 5.2 percent of the overall registered deaths in the Philippines in 2022. (Figure 2 and Table 2)

January had the highest number of deaths 

In 2022, the average number of deaths registered per day was highest in January at 2,268 or about 95 deaths per hour. The month of March had the lowest number of deaths registered per day at 1,692 or equivalent to 71 deaths per hour. (Figure 3 and Table 3)

Daily index refers to the increase/decrease from the overall daily average of event occurrences. The months of March to July fall below the national daily index of 100.0 in 2022. In other words, the daily average number of deaths in these months were lower than the national daily average of 1,862 deaths. (Figure 3 and Table 3)

More male deaths than female deaths recorded

Figure 4 shows the age-sex structure of registered deaths in 2022. It shows an inverted pyramid, with fewer deaths at the younger ages, except for children under one, and progressively increasing as people grow older.  In the Philippines, the number of male deaths (384,256 or 56.5% share) was higher than female deaths (295,510 or 43.5% share) in 2022. The proportion of males who died was highest at the age of 65 to 69 years old (45,377 or 11.8% of male deaths) while for females, the largest was at the oldest age group, 85 years old and over (49,880 or 16.9% of female deaths). (Figure 4 and Table 4)

The sex ratio of 130 indicates that there were about 130 male deaths for every 100 female deaths. Moreover, a sex ratio of over a hundred means that more male deaths were registered compared to their female counterparts at each age group before 80 years old. Further, higher proportions of female deaths were observed in the older age groups (80 years old and over) compared to their male counterparts. (Figure 4 and Table 4)

Five out of ten deaths were attended by health care provider

Attendant refers to a private physician, public health officer, hospital authority, or any other allied health care provider who attended the deceased.

Out of 679,766 registered deaths in 2022, 47.5 percent or 322,820 deaths were attended. Among regions, 14 had more unattended than attended deaths. (Figure 5 and Table 5)

More than half of the total registered deaths occurred at home

In 2022, 393,645 or 57.9 percent of the total deaths occurred at home while 281,666 or 41.4 percent died in any health facilities. Some (0.7% share) died in places other than home and health facilities, such as on the street, in public places, on board a vehicle, airplane or vessel while in transit, among others. A very small proportion of deaths have undetermined or unspecified sites because of the missing information in the place of death of the decedent.

Among the 17 regions, only NCR had more deaths that occurred in health facilities than any other site of occurrence at 65.4 percent. (Figure 6 and Table 6)

Highest number of infant deaths recorded in CALABARZON

Infant deaths are deaths that occurred before reaching age 1. At the national level, 20,072 infant deaths were registered in 2022. Six out of ten deaths were males (11,572 or 57.7% share). The three regions with the highest number of infant deaths recorded were CALABARZON (3,350 or 16.7% share), NCR (2,780 or 13.9% share), and Central Luzon (2,529 or 12.6% share). 

On the other hand, BARMM (167 or 0.8% share), CAR (237 or 1.2% share), and Caraga (495 or 2.5% share) had the least number of registered infant deaths. (Figure 7 and Table 7)

Highest number of maternal deaths recorded in CALABARZON

A maternal death is defined by the World Health Organization as, “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.’’  In 2022, a total of 2,008 women were identified as having died of maternal causes in the country.

Among all regions, CALABARZON recorded the highest number of maternal deaths with 317 (15.8% share), followed by NCR with 232 (11.6% share), and Central Visayas with 208 or 10.4 percent share. On the other hand, CAR (24 or 1.2% share) and BARMM (37 or 1.8% share), recorded the least number of maternal deaths. (Figure 8 and Table 8)

Ischaemic heart diseases, neoplasms, and cerebrovascular diseases were the leading causes of death

Deaths due to ischaemic heart diseases were the biggest contributors among the total deaths in 2022, making up some 18.3 percent (124,110) of the total registered deaths. This was followed by deaths due to neoplasms, at some 10.2 percent (69,433). Mortality due to cerebrovascular diseases (including stroke) ranked third at 10.1 percent (68,726). Diabetes mellitus was behind accounting for 6.3 percent (42,766) of the total deaths. By sex, a similar trend with some deviations in the ranking among the leading causes of death was observed, except that deaths due to the remainder of endocrine nutritional and metabolic diseases instead of respiratory tuberculosis were present in females. (Figure 9 and Table 9)

CALABARZON recorded the highest number of fetal deaths

Fetal death refers to the death of a fetus irrespective of the duration of pregnancy prior to complete expulsion or extraction of a product of conception from the mother's womb.

In 2022, a total of 8,493 fetal deaths were reported. By usual residence of mother, CALABARZON had the highest number with 1,579 cases or 18.6 percent of the total, followed by NCR (1,274 or 15.0% share) and Central Luzon (920 or 10.8% share). (Figure 10 and Table 10)

CLAIRE DENNIS S. MAPA, PhD

Undersecretary

National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

¹Population estimate used was taken from the updated population projections based on the 2015 Census of Population available at www.psa.gov.ph/statistics/census/projected-population