Some 132,000 people will die in 2007, around 18,000 fewer than initially estimated, says national statistics office CBS.

The CBS says the revised figure is due to the fact that fewer people are developing heart and vascular disease.
The drop in the death rate is sharper for people with an ethnic minority background, the CBS says. Nevertheless, the death rate for babies within this group is still 25% to 33% higher than for the population in general.