According to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), suicide is now the leading external cause of death, overtaking road traffic accidents.
In 2008, there were 386,324 deaths in Spain and the main causes were:
- Cardiovascular disease (31.7% of total deaths)
- Tumours (26.9% of total deaths)
- Respiratory problems (11.4% of total deaths)
Deaths as a result of road traffic accidents declined by 20.7% compared to 2007 with a total of 3,021 fatalities.
Deaths as a result of suicide were 3,421 in total, placing it ahead of road traffic accidents in the list of major causes of death. Only 22.6% of suicides were women.