We used CSO data to examine cause of death between 2013 and 2018. We grouped 1,780 different causes of death into eight main categories: cancer, diseases of the circulatory system, diseases of the respiratory system, mental and behavioural disorders, diseases of the nervous system, diseases of the digestive system, external causes of injury and poisoning, and other.

PDF p.23: 3.4 Mental and behavioural disorders - Mental and behavioural disorders refer to clinical conditions characterised by disturbances in thinking, mood or behaviour associated with personal distress or impaired functioning. The majority of deaths in this category are due to dementia, but other examples include mental disorders due to known physiological conditions, and mental and behavioural disorders due to alcohol use or other psychoactive substance use. In 2018, 6% of all deaths in the State were recorded as being caused by mental or behavioural disorders. There was a steady increase between 2013 (1,207 deaths, 4% of state deaths) and 2018 (1,946 deaths, 6% of state deaths). Of the 1,946 deaths in 2018, dementia was the cause of death in the vast majority (96.6%) of cases. The absolute number of deaths due to mental and behavioural disorders increased by 61% between 2013 and 2018 (See report Table 3.7). 

PDF p.23: 3.7 External causes of injury and poisoning - External causes of injury and poisoning codes are used for classifying environmental events and circumstances that cause injury, poisoning and other adverse effects resulting in death. Common examples include road traffic accidents; falls; drowning; choking; burns; and poisoning by, adverse effect of, and overdosing of drugs, medicaments and biological substances. In 2018, 4% of all deaths in the State were caused by external causes of injury and poisoning. Over the period under review, the number of deaths decreased from 1,491 deaths (5% of state deaths) in 2013 to 1,398 deaths (4% of state deaths) in 2018. This represents a decrease of 6% in the absolute number of external causes of injury and poisoning deaths between 2013 and 2018 (Table 3.10). Table 3.2 shows that there were 1,398 deaths caused by external injury and poisoning in 2018 and that, when examined by age, most of these deaths are aged 25–54 years. Overall, 8% of deaths were at 0–24 years, 43% at 25–54 years, 15% at 55–64 years, 10% at 65–74 years, 10% at 75–84 years, and 14% at 85+. The number of deaths caused by external injury and poisoning for males was more than twice the number for females in 2018.