What causes death in Europe? Differences between Italy and other countries, and the role of lifestyle

Sunday, Aug 31, 2025

Il Sole 24 Ore

European countries show varying mortality rates due to lifestyle, healthcare, and external factors.

🔗 Read the article on ilsole24ore.com

[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Italy has the second-lowest avoidable mortality rate in Europe due to healthier lifestyles and good prevention, with heart and circulatory diseases and cancers being the leading causes of death. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted Italian mortality statistics between 2020 and 2022. In contrast, other European countries show varying health profiles: France reports seasonal variations in daily deaths, with higher mortality on Tuesdays and around January 3rd; Lithuania has a cardiovascular mortality rate more than double the EU average due to widespread risk factors like smoking and obesity; Bulgaria ranks high in preventable mortality linked to poor lifestyle habits such as smoking and inactivity; Poland shows life expectancy disparities influenced by socioeconomic status and high rates of alcohol-related deaths; Czechia continues to see cardiovascular diseases as a primary cause of death, though quality of care is improving; Romania leads the EU in treatable causes of death due to high cardiovascular mortality and infrastructure deficiencies; and Greece has seen an increase in road traffic fatalities despite EU goals.

🔗 Read the original article

Previous page The case of the worker from Bangladesh who was injured: violence against workers is also occurring in Greece and Bulgaria. "We want..."
Next page "Dormant" mobile devices could boost the economy

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.