site.btaCabinet Adopts Annual Report on State of Citizens' Health for 2023

The Council of Ministers adopted the Annual Report on the State of Citizens' Health for 2023 on Wednesday. Data from the report shows that there was a marginal increase in the birth rate in 2023, with the number of live births (57,478) being 1% (561) more than the previous year. The total fertility rate (8.9‰) was also higher compared to 2022 and 2021 (8.8‰ and 8.5‰), and exceeded the EU average (8.2‰).

Life expectancy started to rise again and, after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, reached 73.5 years, but was still lower than in the average in the European Union (81.5 years).

Although in 2023 there was a significant reduction in the overall mortality rate compared to previous years (15.7 per 1,000 people, compared to 18.4‰ in 2022 and 21.7‰ in 2021), Bulgaria still had the highest mortality rate in the EU. The main reason for the decrease in the high mortality rate is the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main cause of death in Bulgaria was diseases of the circulatory system (61.1%), followed by oncological diseases (16.5%), and diseases of the respiratory system (4.9%). In 2023, coronavirus already occupied the ninth position as a cause of death (1.0%).

The most frequent causes of hospitalization were diseases of the circulatory organs (10.0%), diseases of the digestive system (7.7%), trauma, poisoning and some other consequences of the impact of external causes (6.8%), which determined a total of 57.9% of hospitalizations.

The overall findings on the state of public health and the health of citizens was not at the level required when compared to data for other countries. Despite the large amount of activities carried out and the positive results achieved, it is still not possible to give a high assessment of the health of the nation. Chronic non-communicable diseases, which are a major cause of death and reduced working capacity, remained a significant challenge.