In total there were more than 2,400 deaths caused by coronary heart disease since 2020, followed by over 800 for both stroke and Covid-19, data relating to deaths in Malta shows.

This data is available on worldlifeexpectancy.com, a website which gives information about causes of deaths in all countries.

The first Covid-19 death happened in April of 2020, meaning that the virus has quickly become one of the major causes of deaths in the country. The health authorities in Malta have always made it a point to say that people are dying "with" Covid, not "of", meaning that the patients involved had underlying conditions which were worsened with the virus.

The statistics, which have been compiled through information obtained from the World Health Organisation, the American Centres for Disease Control, the World Bank and the United Nations, show that coronary heart disease (CHD) continues to be the main cause of death in Malta.

Many link CHD with obesity. This comes as no surprise as according to the WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022, which analyses different aspects of excessive weight in Europe, over three-quarters of men in Malta are overweight.

This means that Malta has the highest rate in the 52 countries making up the World Health Organisation's European region.

This obesity problem is expected to worsen as according to predictions by the World Obesity Federation published last March, it said that a third of the whole population (that including men and women) will be obese by 2030.

Maltese children are also amongst the heaviest in Europe as the WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022 reports how Malta's 11- and 15-year-old boys are the most overweight in the region.

The fourth most common causes of death in 2022 were Influenza and Pneumonia with nearly 600 cases since 2020. Lung cancer (548), Colon-Rectal cancer (409) and Breast cancer (235) are the most common cancers that lead to death.