The Ministry of the Interior says life expectancy in 2025 reached 81.27 years, half a year more than a year earlier. Cancer remained the leading cause of death for a 44th straight year, but its drag on life expectancy shrank from 4.1 years in 2015 to 3.7 years.
According to figures released by the Ministry of the Interior on Saturday and reported by the Central News Agency (Focus Taiwan) and the Taipei Times, life expectancy in Taiwan in 2025 was 81.27 years, up 0.5 year from the 80.77 years reported a year earlier. The ministry recalculated life expectancy with each of the 10 leading causes of death removed in turn and compared the results with the overall average.
광고 문의 · 300×250The logic is straightforward: assume no deaths from a given cause, recompute life expectancy, and the bigger the difference, the greater that cause weighs on longevity. Based on Ministry of Health and Welfare data, the 10 leading causes in 2025 were cancers, heart disease, pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, hypertensive diseases, accidents, nephritis and related kidney disorders, chronic lower respiratory diseases and suicide.
54,838 cancer deaths, but the impact has eased slightly
Cancer has been the number one cause of death for 44 consecutive years. Last year it killed 54,838 people, or 27.48 percent of all deaths. Without cancer deaths, life expectancy would be 84.97 years, 3.7 years longer than the actual figure.
The trend is the notable part. The gap between actual and cancer-excluded life expectancy was 4.1 years in 2015 and 3.7 years in 2025. The ministry read that as a sign that cancer's effect on life expectancy has eased somewhat. That fits the health ministry's earlier message, reported by the United Daily News, that early detection and treatment can let patients manage cancer over the long term much like a chronic disease.
Heart disease 1.54 years, pneumonia 1.13 years; men lose 0.75 year to accidents
Beyond cancer, removing heart disease deaths would add 1.54 years and removing pneumonia deaths would add 1.13 years. Longevity, in other words, depends on managing cardiovascular and respiratory illness as well as cancer.
The gender gap is clear too. Men lost more years than women to most of the 10 causes, the exceptions being diabetes, hypertensive diseases and kidney diseases. For accidents, men lost 0.75 year against 0.36 year for women, more than double. The ministry suggested occupation, physiology, diet and health care use, and lifestyle may all play a part.
The reports do not include breakdowns by city or age group, nor comparisons with other countries. Coverage of the ministry's August release said Taipei had the highest life expectancy, but regional figures for the cancer-excluded calculation have not been confirmed. The full statistics are posted in the statistics section of the ministry's website.