Heart disease is currently the leading cause of death in the United States. In 2022, COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for almost six percent of all deaths that year. The leading causes of death worldwide are similar to those in the United States. However, diarrheal diseases and neonatal conditions are major causes of death worldwide, but are not among the leading causes in the United States. Instead, accidents and chronic liver disease have a larger impact in the United States.

Racial differences

In the United States, there exist slight differences in leading causes of death depending on race and ethnicity. For example, assault, or homicide, accounts for around three percent of all deaths among the Black population but is not even among the leading causes of death for other races and ethnicities. However, heart disease and cancer are still the leading causes of death for all races and ethnicities.

Leading causes of death among men vs women

Similarly, there are also differences in the leading causes of death in the U.S. between men and women. For example, among men, intentional self-harm accounts for around two percent of all deaths but is not among the leading causes of death among women. On the other hand, influenza and pneumonia account for more deaths among women than men.

In 2023, there were approximately 750.5 deaths by all causes per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States. This statistic shows the death rate for all causes in the United States between 1950 and 2023. Causes of death in the U.S. Over the past decades, chronic conditions and non-communicable diseases have come to the forefront of health concerns and have contributed to major causes of death all over the globe. In 2022, the leading cause of death in the U.S. was heart disease, followed by cancer. However, the death rates for both heart disease and cancer have decreased in the U.S. over the past two decades. On the other hand, the number of deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease – which is strongly linked to cardiovascular disease- has increased by almost 141 percent between 2000 and 2021. Risk and lifestyle factors Lifestyle factors play a major role in cardiovascular health and the development of various diseases and conditions. Modifiable lifestyle factors that are known to reduce risk of both cancer and cardiovascular disease among people of all ages include smoking cessation, maintaining a healthy diet, and exercising regularly. An estimated two million new cases of cancer in the U.S. are expected in 2025.

This dataset of U.S. mortality trends since 1900 highlights trends in age-adjusted death rates for five selected major causes of death.

Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below).

Revisions to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) over time may result in discontinuities in cause-of-death trends.

SOURCES

CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov).

REFERENCES

1. National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm.

2. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm.

3. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf.

4. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf.

5. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

From 2018 to 2023, heart disease and cancer accounted for the highest share of deaths in the United States. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death, accounting for around 12 percent of all deaths in 2021. However, by 2023, COVID-19 was responsible for only 1.6 percent of deaths, making it the tenth leading cause of death. This statistic shows the distribution of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States from 2018 to 2023.

This dataset presents the age-adjusted death rates for the 10 leading causes of death in the United States beginning in 1999. Data are based on information from all resident death certificates filed in the 50 states and the District of Columbia using demographic and medical characteristics. Age-adjusted death rates (per 100,000 population) are based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates after 2010 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for non-census years before 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Causes of death classified by the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD–10) are ranked according to the number of deaths assigned to rankable causes. Cause of death statistics are based on the underlying cause of death. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm. Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Curtin SC, and Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2015. National vital statistics reports; vol 66. no. 6. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2017. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_06.pdf.

Data for deaths by leading cause of death categories are now available in the death profiles dataset for each geographic granularity.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

Cause of death categories for years 1999 and later are based on tenth revision of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes. Comparable categories are provided for years 1979 through 1998 based on ninth revision (ICD-9) codes. For more information on the comparability of cause of death classification between ICD revisions see Comparability of Cause-of-death Between ICD Revisions.

Rank, number of deaths, percentage of deaths, and age-specific mortality rates for the leading causes of death, by age group and sex, 2000 to most recent year.

The Detailed Mortality - Underlying Cause of Death data on CDC WONDER are county-level national mortality and population data spanning the years 1999-2009. Data are based on death certificates for U.S. residents. Each death certificate contains a single underlying cause of death, and demographic data. The number of deaths, crude death rates, age-adjusted death rates, standard errors and 95% confidence intervals for death rates can be obtained by place of residence (total U.S., region, state, and county), age group (including infants and single-year-of-age cohorts), race (4 groups), Hispanic ethnicity, sex, year of death, and cause-of-death (4-digit ICD-10 code or group of codes, injury intent and mechanism categories, or drug and alcohol related causes), year, month and week day of death, place of death and whether an autopsy was performed. The data are produced by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Effective September 27, 2023, this dataset will no longer be updated. Similar data are accessible from wonder.cdc.gov. Provisional counts of deaths by the week the deaths occurred, by state of occurrence, and by select underlying causes of death for 2020-2023. The dataset also includes weekly provisional counts of death for COVID-19, coded to ICD-10 code U07.1 as an underlying or multiple cause of death. NOTE: death counts are presented with a one week lag.

This dataset contains counts of deaths for California as a whole based on information entered on death certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state deaths to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period. Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data.

The final data tables include both deaths that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and deaths to California residents (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes deaths that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by age, gender, race-ethnicity, and death place type. Deaths due to all causes (ALL) and selected underlying cause of death categories are provided. See temporal coverage for more information on which combinations are available for which years.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

This dataset of U.S. mortality trends since 1900 highlights the differences in age-adjusted death rates and life expectancy at birth by race and sex. Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below). Life expectancy data are available up to 2017. Due to changes in categories of race used in publications, data are not available for the black population consistently before 1968, and not at all before 1960. More information on historical data on age-adjusted death rates is available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/hist293.htm. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

This dataset contains counts of deaths for California counties based on information entered on death certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state deaths to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period. Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data.

The final data tables include both deaths that occurred in each California county regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and deaths to residents of each California county (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes deaths that occurred in each county regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by age, gender, race-ethnicity, and death place type. Deaths due to all causes (ALL) and selected underlying cause of death categories are provided. See temporal coverage for more information on which combinations are available for which years.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

The leading causes of death by sex and ethnicity in New York City in since 2007. Cause of death is derived from the NYC death certificate which is issued for every death that occurs in New York City.

In 2023, there were 884 male deaths from all causes per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States. This statistics shows the death rate for all causes in the U.S. from 1950 to 2023, sorted by gender.

The Mortality - Multiple Cause of Death data on CDC WONDER are county-level national mortality and population data spanning the yehttps://healthdata.gov/d/2sz9-6c59ars 1999-2006. These data are available in two separate data sets: one data set for years 1999-2004 with 3 race groups, and another data set for years 2005-2006 with 4 race groups and 3 Hispanic origin categories. Data are based on death certificates for U.S. residents. Each death certificate contains a single underlying cause of death, up to twenty additional multiple causes, and demographic data. The number of deaths, crude death rates, age-adjusted death rates, standard errors and 95% confidence intervals for death rates can be obtained by place of residence (total U.S., state, and county), age group (including infants), race, Hispanic ethnicity (years 2005-2006 only), sex, year of death, and cause-of-death (4-digit ICD-10 code or group of codes). The data are produced by the National Center for Health Statistics.

This dataset contains information on the number of deaths and age-adjusted death rates for the five leading causes of death in 1900, 1950, and 2000.

Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below).

SOURCES

CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov).

REFERENCES

1. National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm.

2. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm.

3. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf.

4. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf.

5. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

Number of deaths and age-specific mortality rates for selected grouped causes, by age group and sex, 2000 to most recent year.

This table contains the number of deaths in the population of the Netherlands by underlying cause of death. The causes of death are shown according to the extensive list of 'three digit codes', by age and sex.

Since 2013 Statistics Netherlands is using Iris software for automatic coding for cause of death. This improved the international comparison of the data. The change in coding did cause a considerable shift in the statistic. Since 2013 the (yearly) ICD-10 updates are applied.

Data available from: 1996

Status of the figures: All figures are final.

Changes as of February 14th 2025: For 2023 one death by 'Acute poliomyelitis (A80)' is moved to 'Sequelae of poliomyelitis (B91)'.

When will new figures be published? The aim is to publish the provisional figures of 2024 in the third quarter of 2025.

Effective September 27, 2023, this dataset will no longer be updated. Similar data are accessible from wonder.cdc.gov.

This visualization provides weekly data on the number of deaths by jurisdiction of occurrence and cause of death. Counts of deaths in more recent weeks can be compared with counts from earlier years to determine if the number is higher than expected. Selected causes of death are shown, based on analyses of the most prevalent comorbid conditions reported on death certificates where COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Comorbidities). Cause of death counts are based on the underlying cause of death, and presented for Respiratory diseases, Circulatory diseases, Malignant neoplasms, and Alzheimer disease and dementia. Estimated numbers of deaths due to these other causes of death could represent misclassified COVID-19 deaths, or potentially could be indirectly related to COVID-19 (e.g., deaths from other causes occurring in the context of health care shortages or overburdened health care systems). Deaths with an underlying cause of death of COVID-19 are not included in these estimates of deaths due to other causes. Deaths due to external causes (i.e. injuries) or unknown causes are excluded. For more detail, see the Technical Notes.

Final counts of deaths by the week the deaths occurred, by state of occurrence, and by select causes of death for 2014-2019. Death counts in this dataset were derived from the National Vital Statistics System database that provides the most timely access to the data. Therefore, counts may differ slightly from final data due to differences in processing, recoding, and imputation.