Globally, there were an estimated 60.2 million cases of sepsis in 1990 and 48.9 million cases of sepsis in 2017. This change represents a decrease of 18.8%.

Of all incident cases of sepsis in 2017, 33.1 million occurred in people with an underlying infectious cause of health loss, and 15.8 million occurred in individuals with underlying injuries or non-communicable diseases.

The global age-standardised incidence of sepsis fell from 1,074.7 cases per 100,000 in 1990 to 677.5 cases per 100,000 in 2017, a decrease of 37%. This declining incidence was seen in nearly every location worldwide.

Among all age groups, both sexes, and all locations, the most common underlying cause of sepsis was diarrhoeal disease, in every year from 1990 to 2017, with 15 million cases of sepsis attributable to diarrhoeal diseases in 1990 and 9.21 million in 2017.

In 2017, the most common underlying injury to cause sepsis was road traffic injury, and maternal disorders were the most common non-communicable disease complicated by sepsis.

This study is the first to produce global estimates of sepsis incidence and mortality across 195 countries and territories, 282 underlying causes of death, both sexes, and 23 age groups for the years 1990 to 2017.

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