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Mortality rates improved over the 20 years from 1985 to 2005 as the crude death rate per 100,000 of population stood at 938.2 in 1985 and reduced by 27.1% to 683.6 in 2005.
The crude mortality rate in infants decreased from 866.6 per 100,000 of population in 1985, to 386.9 in 2005.
The crude death rate for those aged 15-19 (47.9 to 54.0 deaths per 100,000 of population) and 20-24 (73.8 to 77.8 deaths per 100,000 of population) years both increased over the period 1985 to 2005.
In 1985 heart attacks were the main cause of death in nearly two out of every ten deaths for men and women in Ireland, while it reduced to just one out of every ten deaths in 2005.
Table 1 depicts death rates per 100,000 of population over the period 1985 to 2005. Those aged 15 to 19 were the only age group which saw deaths per 100,000 of population rise in both 1995 and 2005 in comparison with 1985. All other groups saw minor to major reductions.
Table 2 and Table 3 provide the 10 most common causes of death for both male and female in 1985, and the subsequent change 20 years later in 2005. In very broad terms, five out of the ten most common causes of male deaths in 1985 related to circulatory diseases, while three related to respiratory diseases, and the remaining two were due to malignant neoplasms. This was similar for females, with six of the most common causes related to circulatory diseases, two were respiratory, and two were malignant neoplasms (See Table 3).
Circulatory deaths accounted for four out of every ten deaths in males in 1985, and these were predominately associated with heart attacks. In fact, heart attacks were the cause of death for one in every four males. Similarly for females, four out of every ten deaths were associated with circulatory conditions. By 2005, there was a reduction in the number of deaths and this was driven primarily by reductions in circulatory related deaths. Heart attacks accounted for just one in every ten male and female deaths in 2005.
Table 4 and Table 5 provide the most common cause of death for males and females by age group in 1985 and 2005. In 1985, heart attacks were the number one cause of death for males aged 35 and over, and for females aged 60 and over. Nearly two out of every ten deaths for males aged 35 to 39 years in 1985 were due to heart attack (16.3%). By 2005, external causes of death had replaced heart attacks as the most common cause of death for males aged 35 to 49 years, but was still the most common cause of death, along with other forms of chronic heart disease for those aged 55 and over.
A similar trend occurred for females, with heart attacks going from being the most common cause of death for females aged 60 and over, to being the most common for those aged 75 and over in 2005. Heart attacks were replaced by cancers as the most common cause of death for females in the 60 to 74 age range in 2005.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 June 2025) published Leading Cause of Death in Ireland 1985-2005.
Commenting on the release, Seán O'Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography section of the CSO, said: “The CSO has taken an historical look at some of the main causes of mortality in Ireland from the 1980s to the early 2000s, and have produced a detailed Cause of Death table which should provide users the opportunity to examine detailed cause of death data over this period by age and sex. All cause of death figures in this release are based on the International Classification of Diseases, Version 9 (ICD9) table which is available on our open data portal, data.cso.ie or PxStat.
Overall Results
Examining the 20-year period from 1985 to 2005, Ireland experienced a dramatic improvement in mortality. At a very high level, the crude death rate per 100,000 of population stood at 938.2 in 1985 and had reduced by 4.5% to 895.8 in 1995. The following 10-year period witnessed a further 23.7% reduction in the crude mortality rate, where it stood at 683.6 deaths per 100,000 of population in 2005.
From 1985 to 2005, there was a 60.2% decrease in the mortality rate of those in the 5-9-year-old age-group (23.3 to 9.3), while the mortality rate of those aged 15-19 years increased by 12.7% (47.9 to 54.0). Over the 20-year period, crude mortality rates in infants and children up to 9 years of age, saw the largest decreases, while rates in those aged 15-24 years saw increases.
Analysis by Sex and Age
Acute myocardial infraction, more commonly known as heart attacks, were the number one cause of death for both males and females in 1985. Nearly one out of every four deaths for males in 1985 were due to a heart attack (24.5%), while by 2005, this had decreased to one out of every ten deaths for males (11.0%). For females, deaths due to heart attacks accounted for just under two out of every ten deaths in 1985 (17.7%) and by 2005, this had fallen to one out of every ten female deaths (9.3%).
While deaths due to heart attacks reduced over the period from 1985 to 2005, other forms of chronic ischaemic heart disease, which can include deaths due to coronary atherosclerosis and aneurysms, saw an increase in proportion of all deaths, growing from 5.5% of all deaths in 1985 to 8.9% in 2005. for males, and from 5.0% to 6.6% for females.”