PSA Just Released Preliminary 2022 Vital Statistics. These Show 45,106 More Deaths from Jan - Oct 2022 (+9%), than the Same Period in 2020. Excess Deaths and Dropping Births Continue!

Lifestyle diseases were leading cause of death led by Ischemic Heart Disease, Cancer, Cerebrovascular Diseases, Diabetes, and Hypertensive Diseases. Only 2.7% of deaths were attributed to Covid-19.

The Philippines Statistics Authority have released 2022 preliminary Vital Statistics and Cause of Death data as of 28 February 2023. These are still incomplete, particularly for the last months of 2022.

Given that the 2022 death data is still incomplete, comparisons with prior years must be made on the presumed reasonably complete data from January to October 2022. The presence of excess deaths must exclude comparison with 2021, which had massively high and abnormal excess deaths, instead I compared against 2020.

Comparing January to October 2022 with 2020, there were 45,106 excess deaths, an increase of nearly 9%. This is alarming! As there were already 43.2% excess (premature and unexpected) deaths in 2021, there should have been fewer deaths in 2022. Clearly this is not the case. Excess deaths are continuing into 2022, indicating that whatever was causing the 2021 excess deaths is still having an effect: people are still dying prematurely and in higher than unexpected numbers.

The 2022 birth data is also still incomplete. The drop in registered live births that accelerated after 2019 into 2020 and 2021 continues into 2022. The initial apparent recovery in birth rates in early 2022 was not sustained later in the year and final 2022 births will likely be lower than 2021. In the current data, 2022 has 420,451 fewer births than 2019, accelerating the losses in 2021 (309,184 fewer than 2019) and 2020 (145,239 fewer than 2019). Concerns over vaccine impacts on fertility (9 months after general population rollout which started around August and accelerated through to the end of 2021) are not relieved by this initial data: the October 2022 drop in live births is alarming!

Covid-19 Vaccine Uptakes

For reference, the Philippines went from about 12% of their population “fully vaccinated” at the beginning of September 2021 up to 43% by the end of December.

As of May 2023, the Philippines DOH estimate that about 78 million Filipinos have been given primary series and 23 million have been given booster doses. Uptake in 2023 has been slow and low!

Cause of Death Data

The top 5 leading causes of death in the Philippines, nearly 51% of all reported COD, were lifestyle related. Although a single one of these causes is nominated as the cause of death on a death certificate, they often all occur together as joint contributors to death.

Ischemic Heart Disease was the leading cause of death, contributing 18.4% of all deaths. Neoplasms (cancer) were ranked second and Cerebrovascular Diseases at 3rd, both coming in at 10.2%. Diabetes Mellitis was ranked 4th at 6.2%, and Hypertensive Diseases at 5.7%.

The Philippines clearly has major lifestyle-related health concerns to deal with based on the COD data, joining developed nations in their epidemic of poor health.