In 2022, 124,942 people died in the country, 0.2% less than in 2021 (125,233). Of all deaths in the country, 124,361 were residents (99.5% of the total).

Deaths from diseases of the circulatory system and malignant neoplasms accounted for 48.9% (0.9 pp more than in 2021), still not reaching half of the deaths that occurred in the country, as in 2021 resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 disease.

Cerebrovascular diseases were the cause of the highest number of deaths in 2022, with 9,616 resident deaths due to stroke, which accounted for 7.7% of total resident deaths. The crude mortality rate from cerebrovascular diseases was 92.1 resident deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than in 2021 (92.2). Women continued to be the ones most fatally affected by strokes, with a ratio of 75.8 male deaths per 100 female deaths, which, having decreased compared to the previous year (77.8), reflects the relative worsening of the female condition.

Of all deaths due to malignant neoplasms, 4,410 resident deaths caused by malignant neoplasms of the trachea, bronchi and lung stood out, which represented 3.5% of the total resident deaths and increased by 0.5% over the previous year. These neoplasms continued to affect men and women very differently, with crude mortality rates of 64.5 deaths per 100,000 men and 21.9 deaths per 100,000 women, resulting in a ratio of 268.7 deaths of men per 100 of women.

In 2022, diseases of the respiratory system, which, according to WHO standards, do not include COVID-19 disease, caused 12,114 resident deaths, 18.1% more than in the previous year, with a substantial impact on total resident deaths (1.5 pp more, from 8.2% in 2021 to 9.7% in 2022) and, at the same time,  an increase in the mortality rate from 98.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 116.0 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022. Almost 40% of the increase in deaths caused by diseases of the respiratory system was associated with the increase in deaths from pneumonia, with 4,488 deaths in 2022, which represented 3.6% of the mortality that occurred in 2022 (3.0% in 2021), and an increase of 19.5% deaths compared to the previous year.

Individually, the COVID-19 disease caused the second highest number of deaths (7,769 deaths), accounting for 6.2% of mortality in 2022, despite the decrease of almost 40% in the total number of deaths caused by this disease. The decrease in the number of deaths compared to the previous year was reflected in a substantial reduction in the mortality rate, from 124.5 deaths per 100,000 residents in Portugal in 2021 to 74.4 in 2022, remaining higher in the case of men (81.6) than women (67.8).