The average life expectancy for males is 76.1 years, 4.1 years longer than before. Women in Zagreb live 81.7 years on average, around three years longer than in 2003, shows the survey on health statistics, presented on the occasion of World Health Day, April 7.
The average life expectancy in Zagreb is above the life expectancy in the rest of the country, where the average for both sexes is 77.39 years. However, it is still below the average in Austria (81.27 years) or Slovenia (79.96 years). The life expectancy for Zagreb residents is also below the EU average, which in 2011 was 80.33 years.
The Croatian capital has the highest share of people aged above 65 in Croatia - around 18%. It is followed by Split-Dalmatia County, with 9.95% of people aged over 65, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, with 7.38% of the population aged above 65.
Vascular and malignant diseases were the cause of more than half of all deaths in 2014, followed by respiratory diseases, said Marina Polic-Vizintin of the Dr Andrija Stampar Institute of Public Health. She added that disease types and death rates in Zagreb were similar to those in the rest of the country.
The leading cause of hospitalisation in 2014 were again malignant and vascular diseases. A frequent cause of hospitalisation in the male population were mental disorders caused by alcohol abuse, and breast cancer among women.
"Those are all chronic diseases, which is logical considering that the share of the older population is around 18%, which puts us among very old populations," she said.
The number of new breast cancer cases in 2014 was on the decline compared to the previous year, which is seen as a result of preventive programmes that have been organised in the capital since 2006.
Mortality related to cardiovascular diseases was also on the decline compared to 2013, but the number of bronchial and lung cancer cases was on the rise, notably among women.