Press release No. 385 of 27 October 2016
WIESBADEN – A total of 45,000 people died of lung and bronchial cancer in Germany in 2014. It was the second most common cause of death for men (29,500) and killed approximately 15,500 women. "This means that the number of women who died from lung and bronchial cancer has risen by 41% in the last ten years. Smoking is the main cause of the disease," said Dieter Sarreither, President of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), at a press conference on "How healthy is our lifestyle?", which was held in Berlin on 27 October to present the Statistical Yearbook 2016.
Obesity is considered to be one of the "lifestyle diseases". In 2013, just under 16% of the adult population in Germany had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. More men were severely overweight (17%) than women (14%). The proportion of obese people has been increasing: in 1999, it was as low as 12% for men and 11% for women.
Physical exercise is an effective way to reduce obesity. In 2012/2013, every inhabitant of Germany spent an average of 27 minutes per day doing sport and exercise. This amount of time has remained quite constant over the past eleven years. We spent however 124 minutes, or 4.5 times as much time watching television (or video and DVDs). Our average screen time has increased by 11 minutes since 2001/2002.
Nutrition is another important part of a healthy lifestyle. In 2014, nearly 8% of the population reported that, for financial reasons, they were unable to afford a wholesome meal (vegetarian or with meat, poultry or fish) every second day. People living alone or in lone parent households accounted for an above-average proportion of those suffering from this form of material deprivation (2014: 16% each).
Based on their self-assessment, nearly two thirds of the population (65%) rated their health as very good or good in 2014. Roughly 8% reported poor or very poor health. In this respect, there were almost no differences between men and women.
Detailed documents relating to the press conference are available here (only in german).