In a retrospective study using the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary database, the rate of death was higher in adults with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) than in matched individuals without SLE (standardized mortality ratio (SMR) 1.63; 95% CI 1.43–1.83) and even higher in the subgroup of patients with SLE who had received treatment within the first 6 months of diagnosis (SMR 2.09; 95% CI 1.80–2.39). Infection-related deaths were more common in the patients with SLE compared with the non-SLE group, attributable largely to an increased frequency of sepsis being the cause of death in the patients with SLE.