Mortality is falling in Italy, but in Sardinia deaths remain above pre-Covid levels. In Cagliari the worst national figure

The number of deaths in Sardinia is decreasing, but the total still remains significantly above the average of the years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic .

Furthermore, the Cagliari area is the Italian province where the most significant increase in deaths was recorded between 2021 and 2023 (+6.2%) and is also   the only one with the "plus" sign, together with those of Bergamo (+3.6%), Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (+2.9%) and Terni (+0.7%). For all the other Italian provinces, the 2021-2023 deaths recorded a decrease.

This was revealed by Istat, which has just updated its database on mortality in Italy for the years 2015-2023.

Looking at the numbers, a total of 18,563 people died on the island last year, compared to 20,524 in 2022, 18,785 in 2021 and 18,994 in 2020.

Totals, as mentioned, much higher (+10.3%) than the pre-pandemic period, just think that in 2019 the total deaths on the island were 17,206 and the previous year 16,783, while the average for the years 2015-2019 was 16,836.

At a national level, however, total deaths returned in 2023 to below those of the pandemic years: in total 664,515 people died in our country, compared to 713,499 in 2022, 709,035 in 2021 and 746,146 in 2020. In 2019 the total deaths in Italy were 664,146.

As for the causes of death, while awaiting updated Istat data , a study presented by Isde Sardegna in 2022 reported that on the island, «people die from tumors, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, but the mortality data in areas with high pollution and the lack of screening and prevention".

The Isde study highlighted in particular «the excess mortality in the whole of Sardinia for cancers subject to screening (breast cancer in women and colon cancer in the total population), the excess mortality for heart attacks in both genders in the Municipalities as a whole of small dimensions", hoping that the data could "guide public health choices in the sizing of the offer of services and prevention measures".