Recently, the World Health Organization released the latest top 10 causes of death in the world, with some changes in its content and ranking. In the past decade, the top six of the top ten causes of death are coronary heart disease (1 2.9%), stroke (11.4%), lower respiratory tract infection (5.9%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (5.4%), diarrhea (3.5%) and AIDS (2.9%), in that order, and this ranking has not changed. The causes of death changed more from the seventh to the tenth place. Among them, tracheal and bronchial cancer and lung cancer (2.7%) rose to the 7th place from the 9th place in 2000; while diabetes (2.6%) and road traffic accidents (2.3%) also rose to the 8th and 9th places respectively; premature birth (2.2%) dropped from the 7th place to the 10th place. Tuberculosis was (1.8%) pushed out of the top 10 causes of death, but still listed in the top 15. It is alarming to note that chronic diseases are becoming an important cause of death globally. According to statistics, 55 million people died worldwide in 2011, and the death rate of non-communicable diseases reached two-thirds, up from 60% in 2000. 3,500 people died in 2011 because of road traffic accidents, a figure more than 700 more than in 2000; 1.5 million people died because of lung cancer, a figure 300,000 more than in 2000; there were 17 million deaths due to cardiovascular disease, including 7 million deaths from coronary heart disease, 6.2 million deaths from stroke, and 3 out of every 10 deaths from cardiovascular disease. Coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease are known as the four major non-communicable diseases. In absolute numbers, 80% of NCD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, but the distribution of deaths in countries in different income brackets shows different characteristics. The ratio of deaths due to NCDs to total deaths is 87% in high-income countries; 81% in upper-middle-income countries; 56% in low- and middle-income countries; and 36% in low-income countries. While high-income countries usually have systematic collection and collation of factors including patient condition and cause of death, many low- and middle-income countries do not have similar systems, posing certain limitations for accurate statistics. Counting how many people die each year from what is an important exercise that helps assess the effectiveness of a country’s health care system and helps governments determine the goals and direction of public health care. For example, if cardiovascular disease and diabetes have increased particularly dramatically in a country over the past few years, it may be necessary for the government to promote healthy living on a large scale to help people escape these diseases. Similarly, if a country still has many children dying from malaria, the government should increase its investment in this area. Currently, the World Health Organization remains committed to improving the quality of statistics to improve the world’s medical conditions and strengthen the prevention and control of preventable diseases.