Heart attacks caused 12 percent of all deaths in the European Union in 2015, Eurostat revealed Saturday on the World Heart Day.

Among the Member States, the highest rate of deaths caused by heart attacks were seen in Lithuania (38 percent), followed by Latvia (29 percent) and Slovakia (27 percent). In these countries, more females died of heart attacks than males.

Meanwhile, the lowest share of deaths caused by heart attacks were registered in France and the Netherlands (both 6 percent), followed by Portugal (7 percent). In these countries, more men than women die of heart attacks.

Among all registered death cases, 53 percent of men and 47 percent of women suffered the coronary heart diseases with lethal ending.

Around 643,000 people died from ischaemic heart diseases out of over 5.2 million death cases (excluding injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes).

In Turkey, the report revealed, around 64,700 people died from ischaemic heart diseases out of around 397,000 total death cases (excluding injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes) in 2015.

Between 2005 and 2015, deaths from ischaemic heart diseases fell by 30.3 percent for men and 34.3 percent for women, the Eurostat said.

Every year, an estimated 17 million people die of cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart attacks and strokes, according to the World Health Organization. (Anadolu)