Taipei, June 18 (CNA) Cancer was again the top cause of death in Taiwan in 2020, claiming more than 50,000 lives, but the mortality rate of cancer fell slightly for the first time since 2009, according to Ministry of Health of Welfare (MOHW) statistics released Friday.

A total of 50,161 people in Taiwan died of various types of cancer in 2020, accounting for 29 percent of all deaths in 2020, the figures showed.

That translated to a cancer patient dying every 10 minutes and 30 seconds in the nation, slowing the cancer death clock by three seconds compared to 2019.

The cancer mortality rate was 212.7 per 100,000 population in 2020, down from 212.9, or 0.1 percent, the previous year. It was the first time the mortality rate had fallen for a given year since 2009, the MOHW figures showed.

When adjusted for age based on the World Health Organization's world population structure in 2000, the mortality rate was 117.3 cancer deaths per 100,000, down 3.3 percent from 121.3 a year earlier, the MOHW said in a statement.

This age-adjusted rate helps factor out the influence of a country's age distribution on mortality numbers, and were it to rise it would point to factors other than age causing more cancer deaths.

By age, 86 percent of the deaths caused by cancer in Taiwan in 2020 occurred among those 55 years of age and older, with 32,388 of the cancer deaths among those aged 65 and older, 2.0 percent higher than in the previous year and 29.8 percent higher than in 2010.

The 17,773 people aged 64 or under who died of cancer in 2020 was down 3.8 percent from the previous year but 7.4 percent higher than in 2010.

The figures reflect a trend of higher mortality from cancer among seniors 65 or older, the MOHW said.

Among cancers in 2020, lung cancer was the leading cause of death, followed by liver cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer in women, prostate cancer, oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, and ovarian cancer.

The main causes of death in Taiwan behind cancer in 2020 were heart disease, pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, accidents, hypertension, chronic lower respiratory diseases, nephrotic syndrome and kidney failure, and chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis, according to the figures.

The top 10 causes of death accounted for 134,676 deaths last year, or 77.8 percent of the total of 173,067.

Notably, the 173,067 deaths in Taiwan in 2020 were 2,357 fewer than the previous year, with a mortality rate of 733.9 per 100,000 population, a decline of 1.3 percent, the figures showed.

The age-adjusted mortality rate in 2020 was 390.8 per 100,000 population, down 4.3 percent year-on-year.

The overall mortality rate previously fell in 2017 when 729.9 deaths per 100,000 were recorded, down from 733.2 deaths the previous year, the ministry said.

It attributed the decline in 2020 to restrictions introduced last year to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of people who died of chronic lower respiratory diseases fell by 10.2 percent and deaths from pneumonia dropped by 9.5 percent.

By age, 126,881, or 73.3 percent of the total deaths in 2020 were among seniors 65 or older, followed by the 45-64 age group at 21.2 percent.

Accidents were the main cause of death among people aged 1-24, cancer and suicide were the two main causes of death for people aged 25-44, and cancer and chronic heart disease were the two top causes of death among people aged 45 and older, the MOHW said.