The average mortality rate lay at 10.7‰, corresponding to 10.7 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. Luxembourg registered the lowest mortality rate with 6.8 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants, broadly thanks to its younger demographic. The highest mortality rate was found in the Saarland at 12.9‰, whereas the rate in Lorraine was 9.8‰. The EU-wide average is 10‰.
Broadly, figures can be explained by the different age structures within regions. Over-60s represent 30.1% of Saarland's demographics, but only 19.4% of the Grand Duchy's residents.
The Greater Region's mortality rate has remained relatively stable between 1988 and 2016, ranging from 10.9‰ to 10.7‰. Saarland has experienced the highest increase (+1.1), followed by Lorraine (+0.9), but other areas have had their mortality rates drop: -0.2 in Rhineland-Palatinate, -1 in Wallonia, and -3.5 in Luxembourg.
A total of 123,600 deaths were recorded in the Greater Region in 2016, almost a third due to cardiovascular diseases, but this proportion has nevertheless dropped since 1988 (by 45.6% to 31.6% in 2016), corresponding to 39,100 deaths.
On the contrary, the proportion of deaths caused by malignant tumours has lightly increased over the years, rising from 24.7% in 1988 to 25.4% in 2016 (31,300 deaths). As for how deaths caused by tumours were spread over the different regions, it appeared to be relatively similar. The lowest tumour-fatality rate was found in Wallonia at 23.6%, with the highest (28.5%) noted in Lorraine.
Finally, road accident fatalities represent 0.5% of deaths, having strongly dropped following road safety measures taken in each country. With 1,814 deaths caused by road accidents in 1988, that figure since dropped to three times less in 2016 (649).
