Every year, scientists – affiliated with the French public health agency Santé publique France, Inserm, and Drees, the statistics department of the Ministry of Health – compile a report on the main causes of death, with a slight delay. This year's report focuses on 2024, when more than 641,000 deaths were recorded.
When compared to the general population, the mortality rate of the French has fallen to a historically low level – 777.9 per 100,000 inhabitants – according to this reference study.
But, she warns, this mortality " remains significantly higher than that which would have resulted from extending the 2015-2019 or 2012-2019 trends", before the Covid pandemic which had caused a sharp rebound in the early 2020s.
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Despite a decrease in tumor mortality, respiratory diseases are on the rise.
In detail, tumors, which essentially correspond to cancer-related mortality, accounted for 27.1% of deaths in 2024 and circulatory diseases – mainly referring to cardiovascular diseases – caused 21.2%.
Both figures are declining, but with varying realities. Thus "Tumor mortality continues to decline, with the exception of pancreatic cancer, which shows a rising trend, and lung, bronchial, and tracheal cancer in women.""The three institutions note. And the deaths linked to tumors..." these individuals are on average younger than those affected by all causes combined."s," they emphasize.
Furthermore, a third major cause of death, respiratory diseases, continues to increase, a trend already underway.owork during previous years. They caused 8.2% deaths, a figure that does not include Covid, whose deaths continue to decline.
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The flu is to blame
“ This increase is mainly due to a 2024-2025 flu epidemic characterized by an early start, with a peak reached in mid-January 2025.", the study explains.
The researchers have also drawn up an initial assessment for 2025, although it remains subject to methodological uncertainties. The trends appear similar to those of 2024, with a " slight decrease » mortality rates from tumors and cardio-neurovascular diseases.
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