Taiwan’s 2025 life expectancy would have reached 84.97 years in a calculation excluding cancer deaths, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said Saturday, underscoring the disease’s weight in the country’s mortality data.
The ministry recalculated the figure after removing deaths attributed to each of the 10 leading causes, then compared every result with the 2025 average of 81.27 years. Its cancer adjustment produced a 3.70-year difference. The MOI said the size of each gap shows how much a given cause affects life expectancy.
The MOI said cancer had topped Taiwan's mortality rankings for 44 consecutive years. It counted 54,838 cancer deaths in 2025, or 27.48% of all deaths that year.
Comparable calculations put the increase at 1.54 years when heart disease deaths were excluded and 1.13 years for pneumonia. The difference between the overall figure and the cancer-excluded estimate was 4.10 years in 2015 and 3.70 years in 2025. The ministry said the decline suggested cancer’s effect on life expectancy had eased slightly.
The MOI’s comparison also found larger life-expectancy reductions for men than women for most of the 10 causes. Diabetes, hypertensive diseases and kidney diseases were exceptions. Accidental injuries reduced the estimate by 0.75 years for men and 0.36 years for women. The ministry said the differences may relate to work, physiological factors, diet, health care or lifestyle.
