Cumulative development in countries is leading to an “epidemiological transition”, whereby early deaths are replaced by late deaths, and communicable diseases are substituted by non-communicable diseases. This is also the case in LAC, where the burden from non-communicable diseases amongst adults – the most economically productive age group – is rapidly increasing. Over the last three decades, LAC countries have experienced major public health interventions that combined with the decline in infectious diseases and stable health trends, have contributed to rapid gains in life expectancies (Alvarez, Aburto and Canudas-Romo, 2019[1]). However, the COVID‑19 pandemic has disrupted this progress, leading to a substantial increase in mortality, particularly in 2020 and 2021. Despite its delayed onset compared to other regions, estimates suggest that LAC accounted for 27% of global COVID‑19 deaths by early 2022, although there was substantial heterogeneity within the region (OECD/The World Bank, 2023[2]).
There are wide disparities in adult mortality in the LAC region. For men in 2022, the probability of dying between ages 15 and 60 ranged from a low of 98 per 1 000 population in Chile to 281 per 1 000 in El Salvador and Haiti (Figure 3.11). It also exceeded 250 per 1 000 population in Guyana. Amongst women, the probability ranged from 57 per 1 000 population in Chile to 167 in Haiti. On average, 63.8% of deaths across LAC33 were among men, being approximately 1.76 times more likely to die than women. In most countries, mortality rates for men were one and a half times the rates for women or higher.
All-cause mortality for LAC25 using measured data from WHO mortality database ranged from less than 500 per 100 000 population in Chile, Costa Rica, Peru and Panama, to over 1 000 in Jamaica in 2023 (Figure 3.11). From estimated data, Haiti also had an all-cause mortality rate over 1000 per 100 000 population. For LAC25, mortality declined by an average of 5.2% between 2010 and 2019. The largest declines were in Chile, Panama, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago (over 15% decrease). This overall declining trend in all-cause mortality is disrupted by mortality rise linked to the COVID‑19 pandemic, particularly in countries where the most recent available data was from 2021 or 2020. The average all-cause mortality rate in LAC25 was more than 58% higher than the average amongst OECD Member countries in 2023. Amongst these countries, mortality increased by an average of 7.4% between 2019 and 2023, with Dominica, Jamaica and Saint Kitts and Nevis recording the steepest increases over this period (27.1% 25.9%, and 24.1% increase respectively). In comparison, all-cause mortality for the rest of LAC countries was captured with estimated data from IHME. In these countries, mortality decreased by an average of 1.5% from 2019 to 2023.
Non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers were the most common causes of death, being responsible for almost 75.9% of all deaths, on average, across all 33 LAC countries in 2023 (Figure 3.12; see also section “Mortality from cardiovascular diseases” and section “Mortality from cancer” in Chapter 3). In OECD Member countries, the average was higher at 85.3%. Communicable diseases such as respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, and tuberculosis, along with maternal and perinatal conditions, also remained major causes of death amongst many countries in the LAC region, accounting for more than 14.1% of deaths in 2023 for the 33 LAC countries. The remaining 9.95% of deaths are attributed to injuries and violence.
