The Death statistics according to cause of death constitutes one of the most important sources of information in the field of healthcare. It is conducted following the criteria established by the WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which covers over 12,000 diseases.

Data on causes of death is collected in three questionnaires: Medical Death Certificate/Statistical Death Bulletin, Statistical Legal Death Bulletin and the Statistical Birth Bulletin, in addition to the information provided directly by the Institutes of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences .

These statistics offer information on mortality according to the underlying cause of death, distribution by sex, age, residence and the month of death. It also offers indicators which facilitate carrying out geographical comparisons and measuring premature mortality: standardised rates of mortality and potential years of lost life. Since 2012, the education level variable has been included in the statistics on deaths.

For the first time, in the publication of 2016 deaths, tables that interrelate the multiple causes and the underlying cause are presented.