Philippine Statistics Authority | Republic of the Philippines

2022 Causes of Deaths in the Philippines (Preliminary as of 31 October 2022)

Reference Number: 2023-006

Release Date: 23 January 2023

Explanatory Note

Data on causes of death presented in this press release were obtained from the deaths registered, either timely or belatedly, at the appropriate Office of the City/Municipal Civil Registrar throughout the country and subsequently submitted for encoding to the Office of the Civil Registrar General through the Provincial Statistical Offices (PSOs) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The information presented includes provisional deaths that occurred from January to September 2022 based on data files received by the PSA - Civil Registration Service (CRS) from the PSOs as of 31 October 2022. Thus, the figures presented herein are still preliminary and may differ from the final count. Deaths of Filipinos abroad are not yet included in this release, but Filipinos whose usual residence is abroad and foreign nationals with deaths occurring in the country during the reference period were included in this report.

Figures in this release, specifically for deaths due to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), may differ from the one released by the Department of Health (DOH) because the figures in this release were obtained from the certificates of death particularly the descriptions written on the medical certificate portion therein as reviewed by the health officer of the local government unit concerned. On the other hand, the figures released by the DOH were obtained through a surveillance system.

Furthermore, figures in this release for deaths due to COVID-19 refer to both confirmed and probable cases as of registration. The coding of causes of death is based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems revision 10 (ICD-10). With the emergence of COVID-19, the WHO issued two new emergency codes (Code U07.1 and Code U07.2) to be used when coding causes of death for statistical purposes.

Code U07.1 or COVID-19-virus identified is used when COVID-19 is confirmed by a laboratory test. Code U07.2 or COVID-19-virus not identified is used for suspected or probable cases as well as clinically-epidemiologically diagnosed COVID-19 cases where testing was not completed or inconclusive.1 Thus, the figures in this release for deaths due to COVID-19 include both Code U07.1 and Code U07.2 while the figures released by the DOH, on the other hand, include deaths from confirmed cases only or Code U07.1.

¹https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/COVID-19-coding-icd10.pdf

Ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and neoplasms lead the causes of death in the Philippines

The top three causes of death in the country from January to September of 2022 were ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and neoplasms. The leading causes of death in the same period in 2021 were ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and COVID-19 virus identified. From January to September 2022, ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death with 77,173 cases or 18.5 percent of the total deaths in the country. On the other hand, cerebrovascular diseases, came in second with 42,890 deaths (10.3% share). Neoplasms, commonly known as “cancer”, were the third leading cause which accounted for 42,497 recorded cases (10.2% share) from January to September 2022. Deaths due to diabetes mellitus recorded 26,774 cases or 6.4 percent share, making it the fourth leading cause of death, while deaths due to hypertensive diseases, which ranked fifth, recorded 23,971 cases or 5.7 percent share. (Table 1 and Figure 1)

Figure 1. All Causes of Mortality (Top 20), Philippines:
January to September, 2021^(p) and 2022^(p)
(as of 31 October 2022)

Note: Symptoms, signs, and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (R00-R99) are not

included in the analysis due to the unspecified nature of these causes.

^(p) - Preliminary

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ranks among the leading causes of death

Registered deaths due to COVID-19 accounted for a total of 13,883 deaths or 3.3 percent of the total registered deaths from January to September 2022. By classification, COVID-19 with virus identified and COVID-19 virus not identified were both included in the 20 leading causes of death. COVID-19 with virus identified was the 11th leading cause of death in the country with 9,749 cases or 2.3 percent of the total deaths. Meanwhile, registered deaths due to COVID-19 with virus not identified accounted for 4,134 or 1.0 percent of the total deaths, making it the 19th leading cause of death. (Table 1 and Figure 1)

Three regions report more than a thousand COVID-19 deaths

Among the 17 regions, National Capital Region (NCR) registered the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 3,444 or 24.8 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths from January to September 2022. Region IV-A (CALABARZON) ranked second with 2,257 deaths (16.3%), while Central Luzon came in third with 1,888 deaths (13.6%). On the other hand, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) reported the least number of registered COVID-19 deaths with only 38 cases. (Table 2 and Figure 2)

Figure 2. Number of Registered Deaths Due to COVID-19 by Region of

Usual Residence, Philippines: January to September 2022(p)
(as of 31 October 2022

^(p) - Preliminary

Quezon City registers most COVID-19 deaths in NCR

In NCR, Quezon City reported the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19, with 659 deaths or 19.1 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths in the region from January to September 2022. This was followed by the City of Manila and City of Pasig with 551 (16.0%) and 347 (10.1%) COVID-19 deaths, respectively. (Table 3 and Figure 3)

Figure 3. COVID-19 Deaths in NCR, January to September 2022^(p)
(as of 31 October 2022)