[From the chapter Be on the move]

The chapter states that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. The source is the World Health Organization’s fact sheet The top 10 causes of death, updated on 7 August 2024, drawing on the 2021 Global Health Estimates. WHO groups the top global causes under two headings — cardiovascular (ischaemic heart disease, stroke) and respiratory — and identifies ischaemic heart disease as the single biggest killer, responsible for 13 percent of all deaths worldwide.

Read the fact sheet at who.int at https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

Version consulted, archived on 6 August 2026:
https://web.archive.org/web/20260806195017/https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

WHO updates this fact sheet as new estimates are released; current figures may differ from those cited above.