Global trends in NCD mortality: progress, setbacks, and regional disparities

A recent study published in The Lancet tracks changes in non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality across 185 countries from 2001 to 2019. Using WHO Global Health Estimates, it assesses how the probability of dying from an NCD before age 80 has evolved over two decades and how specific diseases and age groups contributed to these shifts. Most countries saw declines from 2010–2019, driven largely by reductions in circulatory disease mortality, while neuropsychiatric conditions and pancreatic and liver cancers contributed to increases. The study highlights uneven progress, with notable improvements in central and eastern Europe and central Asia, and deteriorations in several high-income and Latin American countries, underscoring widening disparities in global NCD outcomes.

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