Alzheimer's and dementia deaths see sharpest rise in Malaga province, up 21% in one year

Health and Wellness

Suicide, homicide and traffic-related mortality rates decreased in 2025

Nuria Triguero

Alzheimer's and senile dementia patients and deaths are relentlessly increasing year after year as life expectancy rises. These two diseases are considered the epidemic of the 21st century.

The 2025 surge was particularly striking. Deaths from senile and presenile mental disorders in Malaga province skyrocketed by 33.7%, reaching 849. Last year this group of diseases (excluding Alzheimer's) became the leading cause of death in the detailed (non-grouped) ranking. Until 2024, mortality linked to dementia was surpassed by respiratory cancers, cerebrovascular diseases and other heart conditions.

The 849 deaths from senile mental disorders, added to the 516 deaths from Alzheimer's (a 4.2% increase compared to 2024), brought the total to 1,365 deaths in the province.

The combined increase in mortality from these conditions reached 20.8% in a single year. It is no longer a silent epidemic, but a galloping one, according to INE (national institute of statistics) data.

Gender analysis reveals a significant gap: of the 849 deaths from dementia, 577 were women (68%) and only 272 were men. Similar is the case with Alzheimer's disease, with 360 deaths among women compared to 156 deaths among men. This imbalance is a consequence of both women's greater life expectancy and their inherent vulnerability to these illnesses.

Fewer homicides

In contrast, last year marked a decrease in deaths from non-natural causes. This includes suicides, accidents, homicides and overdoses, all of which together fell by 19.1%, dropping to 496.

In comparison, 2024 was a particularly tragic year, with more than 600 deaths from non-natural causes.

Perhaps the best news in the annual report lies in the section on suicides and self-inflicted injuries, a critical public health indicator that saw a significant turnaround. Malaga recorded 136 suicides in 2025 compared to 189 in 2024, a drop of 28.0%.

The decline was particularly pronounced among the male population, where self-inflicted deaths fell from 154 to 106 (-31.2%), although men still account for the vast majority of cases in the province compared to women (30 deaths in 2025 compared to 35 in 2024).

There was also a drop in deaths following domestic, work-related and road accidents.

Deaths from accidental falls decreased by 14.9%, from 148 to 126. Malaga's roads also claimed fewer lives: 59 compared to 67 in 2024, representing an 11.9% decrease.

The most significant relative decrease, however, was in "accidental poisonings by psychotropic drugs and drugs of abuse" (overdoses). Although it raised alarms in 2024 with 51 deaths, in 2025 it dropped by more than half, ending the year with 22 deaths (-56.9%).

In contrast, accidental drownings and suffocations rose from 67 to 68 fatal cases. Fire victims also increased, from 9 to 12.

Tumours and circulatory diseases cause half of all deaths

Overall, the province of Malaga experienced a slight increase in its overall mortality rate during 2025, registering a total of 13,885 deaths compared to 13,785 in 2024.

Behind this slight increase of 100 deaths (equivalent to 0.73%) lies a profound transformation in the causes of death among Malaga residents: a sharp rise in deaths linked to neurodegenerative diseases of old age, a significant decrease in deaths from external causes and a stabilisation with a downward trend in cancer and diseases of the circulatory system. One out of every two deaths last year was due to these two causes.

Tumours remained the leading cause of death in the province in 2025, accounting for 3,678 deaths. This represents a slight decrease of 2.49% compared to the 3,772 deaths in 2024. Within the group of oncological diseases, lung, tracheal and bronchial cancers claimed the most lives: 825 (in this case, there is a significant gender gap, with 603 men and 222 women). Colon cancer (322), pancreatic cancer (243) and breast cancer followed at a considerable distance.

Following oncological diseases were diseases of the circulatory system, which caused 3,561 deaths in the province last year (one more than in 2024). Within this large group, the most lethal conditions were strokes, with 765 deaths, followed by "other heart diseases" (652), "other ischemic heart diseases" (508), acute myocardial infarction (which increased by 7.5% to 498 deaths, 322 men and 176 women) and heart failure (485).

Coronavirus mortality decreases, while flu mortality increases

Statistics from the INE confirm the decline of what was the major health crisis of the decade. Covid-19 deaths fell from 133 in 2024 to 61 in 2025, a reduction of 54.1%. In contrast, 2025 was a particularly virulent year for influenza, with an increase in deaths by 35% to 107 in Malaga.

There were also notable increases in deaths due to respiratory system diseases, which rose by 4.1% (to 1,461) and, more acutely, in those linked to the digestive system, which rose by 13.4% to 760 deaths compared to 670 the previous year.

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