The June´s number of deaths was the lowest in the last two years, with the overall excess mortality rate decreasing to 1%

The excess mortality rate has been gradually decreasing since March 2022, though in two regions of Slovakia it still reached values higher than 10%. In June 2022, 31 people succumbed to the infection of COVID-19, it dropped to tenth place in the ranking of the most common causes of death.

The number of deaths in Slovakia has been gradually decreasing for the third month. In total, 4.1 thousand people died in June 2022, which was only by 1.1% more people than the value of the five-year average of 2015-2019 before the onset of the pandemic1). This follows from preliminary data on the number of deaths and causes of death in June 2022 published by the Statistical Office of the SR. The Office also clarified the data for the first five months of this year.

"For the second month, the situation in the number of deaths has approached the situation from the previous years. A more positive development trend is illustrated by the fact that the fewest number of people died in Slovakia in June over the last 24 months. The number of victims of the disease COVID-19 has also decreased significantly, in June it caused the death of only 31 people," said Zuzana Podmanická, Director of the Department of Population Statistics of the SOSR.

Significantly fewer people died in the group of people of productive age and in Banskobystrický kraj

For the sixth consecutive month, the below-average number of deaths was recorded among people of productive age (from 15 to 64 years old). But there was still a higher mortality¹⁾ (by 7%) in people older than 64 years, which is the most numerous of the three basic age groups in the structure of the deceased persons. Within this age group, younger seniors (65-74) died in higher numbers; their excess mortality reached up to 19%, while for older seniors the excess mortality was only at the level of 2%.

A higher number of deaths than the five-year average before the onset of the pandemic occurred in four out of eight Slovak regions during the sixth month of this year, with the excess mortality in individual regions ranging from 1 to 12%. The worst situation was in Trnavský and Košický kraj, where the number of deaths was higher than the average of the previous five years by more than 10%.

Compared to May's values, the situation in terms of excess mortality worsened only in one region, namely Košický kraj.  On the contrary, compared to May, the situation in Banskobystrický kraj improved the most.

COVID-19 infection was the tenth most common cause of death in June

Only 31 people died as a result of the COVID-19 infection in June, which is twenty times less than in March 2022, when the highest number of people died of this cause this year. With a share of less than 1% of all deaths, it ended up among the causes that only slightly affect mortality in the long term, it was ranked 10th among 22 groups of diseases²⁾. Even during the first four months of this year, the coronavirus was in third or fourth place in the causes of death²⁾. In May, it was the ninth most common cause of death in Slovakia.

The most common causes of death in the sixth month of this year were diseases of the circulatory system, which represented 45% of deaths (1.8 thousand persons) and tumors for 27% (1.1 thousand persons). These two groups of deaths have long been among the most common causes of death. Compared to the average of the previous five years, 3% fewer people died from diseases of the circulatory system in June. In case of tumors, for the first time since October 2021, more people died than the five-year average before the pandemic, i.e. by 4%.

In June, the first five most common causes²⁾ were completed by deaths from diseases of the respiratory system (7%), digestive system (6%) and external causes of death (5%).