US Death Statistics By Death Rate, Age And Gender, Number Of People Shot To Death, States And Causes
Updated · Nov 05, 2024
WHAT WE HAVE ON THIS PAGE
- Introduction
- Editor’s Choice
- UD Death Rate
- Death Rate In The US By Age And Gender
- Number Of People Shot To Death By US Police By Month
- US Death Rate By States
- Number Of COVID-19 Deaths In The US By Age
- Causes Of Deaths In US
- US Life Expectancy At Birth
- Causes Of Infant Death In The US
- Deaths Due To Violence And Substance Abuse
- Conclusion
Introduction
US Death Statistics: The figures on the death of persons in the United States are an unequivocal depiction of the challenges the health, economy, and social frameworks of the country are facing. In the year 2024, many deaths can be attributed to a range of natural as well as artificial reasons, such as old age, illnesses, and accidents. However, heart disease and cancers persist to be the malignancies causing most deaths.
This article goes in-depth on these US death statistics with the assistance of some recent numeric updates, figures, and clear descriptions, which layer the main aspects of death occurrences in the U.S. population.
Editor’s Choice
- In the year 2021, about 3.46 million residents of the United States were reported dead.
- According to US death statistics, Diseases of the heart and cancers continued to top the global causes of death. However, approximately 12% of deaths caused this year were as a result of COVID-19, which ranked in the third position.
- The rise in the number of deaths related to COVID-19 led to an increase in total death rates in the years 2020 and 2021 as compared to the previous years, adjusting for all other causes. In the year 2021, one is likely to die of heart disease in every six people; hence, the odds are equal to 1 in 6.
- The odds of dying from cancer resided at 1 in 7; however, the risk of dying from COVID-19 was 1 in 10. It is very common to reckon heart diseases and cancers as the primary causes of death in the United States today.
- Nowadays, pneumonia and influenza still account for a considerable number of deaths. Still, a rise of more contemporary age-related problems like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and boosting suicide rates have also integrated as serious causes.
- US death statistics reveal that in 2020, in the United States, cancer caused more than 602,000 deaths. Lung and bronchus cancers are the leading causes of cancer deaths among both men and women, with these cancers accounting for an estimated 127,000 deaths in 2023.
- In the case of women, breast cancer comes behind in terms of mortality, which resonates among men owing to prostate cancer.
- The rates of suicide have increased among both men and women in the past 10 years, but the proportions remain approximately 3.7 times higher in men.
- Due to the opioid epidemic, the rate of drug overdoses spiked up, and that of recorded overdose deaths in 2021 hit the highest peak ever recorded, with around 70600 deaths associated with fentanyl.
- In the last few years, attitudes towards burial have changed considerably, as the proportion of the U.S. population choosing burial fell to 38 % in 2020, while the options of cremation became more widespread.
- US death statistics indicate that by 2027, it is expected that around 65% of the American populace will opt for cremation services, over and above the perceived trend for such due to cost.
- The average cost of a funeral with viewing and burial (with no vault) as of 2021 stood at $7,848, while the average cost of the same kind of funeral except the burial, instead of the earth, there is a cremation attended at the end was $6,971.
- For funerals that include a vault, the price went up to a median of $9,420. The life expectancy in the United States is, as of the year 2022, 76.4 years.
- Road traffic accidents claimed the lives of 46,980 people in the year 2021, while opioid drug overdoses currently take around 208 people per day.
- Heart attack disease remains one of the top causes of mortality for each age and social category; on the other hand, older adults, particularly those who are more than 71 years old, face a higher risk of death due to choking.
- US death statistics show that Dying from falls is prominent even among a hundred and above age group at the rate of 736 per 100,000.
- They also add that a greater proportion of minority children and individuals above the age of 90 are at a higher risk of hazards associated with fire, smoke, or flames.
UD Death Rate
(Reference: enterpriseappstoday.com)
- US death statistics show an annual increase in death rates in America for the past five years. In 2017, the death ratio stood at 8.580, with a market increase of 1.240% of the population.
- In 2018, the figure grew to 8.685, representing a percentage growth of 1.220%. In subsequent years, indices of mortality continued to rise: 8.782 in 2019, 8.880 in 2020, and 8.977 in 2021, with rates of growth of 1.120%, 1.120%, and 1.090%, respectively.
- In the year 2022, the death rate went up to 9.075, which is an increase of 1.090%. The last available factor is that in the US, for January and February, the combined death rate indicates 9.172, which is an increase of 1.070%.
Death Rate In The US By Age And Gender
| Age Group | Male | Female |
| All ages* | 1,118.20 | 970.8 |
| Under 1 year** | 598.9 | 517 |
| 1-4 | 27 | 23 |
| 5-14 | 16.4 | 12 |
| 15-24 | 126.9 | 49.3 |
| 25-34 | 251.2 | 108.6 |
| 35-44 | 373.3 | 201.2 |
| 45-54 | 668.4 | 393.9 |
| 55-64 | 1,397.50 | 848 |
| 65-74 | 2,640 | 1,715.6 |
| 75-84 | 6,031.80 | 4,395.7 |
| 85 and over | 17,190.50 | 14915 |
(Source: statista.com)
- US death statistics indicate that in 2021, the male population of the United States aged 85 and above recorded the highest mortality rate of approximately 17,190.5 per 100,000 population, while the female population had a death rate of about 14,914.5 per 100,000.
- The male overall age-standardized death rate was 1,118.2 per 100,000, while the female overall age-standardized death rate was 970.8 per 100,000.
- A death rate is defined as the frequency of death within a given population, expressed in terms of per 1,000 or 100,000, which includes all causes of deaths, whether natural or unnatural.
- The US death rate showed no change from 1990 to almost two decades ago and even tamed down until a couple of years ago and started to rise at alarming positions, hitting contemporary figures.
- The birth rate in the United States of America has been declining for some time now, which, however, still is higher than the death rate.
- In the U.S., various factors affect the rates of mortality, and recent statistics show that the leading three include heart disease, cancer, and injury.
- Heart disease also tops the causes of death globally.
Number Of People Shot To Death By US Police By Month
(Reference: statista.com)
- US death statistics reveal that as of September 10, 2024, a total of 828 people had been fatally shot by police in the United States. The year 2023 recorded a total of 1,163 police shooting deaths across the nation.
- The issue of police harassment is not new; in fact, it has existed in the US since the 1700s. Historically, Black Americans have suffered the highest fatal police shooting rates compared to other races.
- Racial disparities also affect attitudes about the treatment by the police; for instance, most Black Americans think that the police treat Black and White people differently, and this is the opinion of more than half of White and Hispanic Americans, too.
- The growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, which calls for justice for all the Black people who have been murdered through police violence, has raised the stakes on police reform.
- Research from 2019 discovered that police agencies that mandated an officer try their best to avoid lethal force and offer alternatives first posted a reduction of 25% in police killings. In the wake of the Murder of George Floyd in 2020, 21 states, including New York and California, enacted police reform legislation.
US Death Rate By States
(Reference: statista.com)
- US death statistics reveal that the mortality rate of COVID-19, released by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that as of February 2023, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Mississippi had the highest, basal 452 deaths or over, per every 100,000 people.
- Other well-reported states with high COVID-19-related deaths are West Virginia (439), New Mexico (427), Alabama (426), Arkansas (426), Tennessee (424), Michigan (417), New Jersey (403), Louisiana and Kentucky (400), Georgia (396), Florida (395), New York (393) and Pennsylvania (389 digits away from Thousand).
- Also states with quite vibrant COVID-19/AIDS per 100,000 include Nevada, Indiana (385), South Carolina (371), Missouri (368), Rhode Island (362), South Dakota (356), Ohio (354), Massachusetts (342), Kansas, Wyoming and (342), Montana (341), Iowa, Connecticut and (336), Delaware, Washington (335), Illinois (325), North Dakota (321), Texas (320), Idaho (301), Wisconsin (277), Virginia (271), Maryland (269), North Carolina (268), Minnesota (259), California (254), Oregon (219), New Hampshire (217), Maine 213), last Alaska and Washington DC, Puerto Rico (201), Utah (179), Vermont (164) and Hawaii (127).
Number Of COVID-19 Deaths In The US By Age
(Reference: statista.com)
- From January 2020 through June 14, 2023, a total of 1,134,641 deaths were recorded in the USA due to COVID-19, with nearly 307,169 of these deaths occurring among people aged 85 years and above.
- These US death statistics data are focused on the distribution of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. over this period by age.
Causes Of Deaths In US
(Source: statista.com)
- In 2024, the US death statistics projected new cancer case numbers in the U.S. for the first time will go beyond the 2 million mark.
- However, heart disease remains the number one killer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- Apart from these diseases, COVID–19 was the third most common cause of death after heart and cancer diseases in the year 2021.
- The year 2021 has been selected, though more recent numbers exist for analysis. This is because it is the latest year with national full information on the death rate. In the United States, other than those listed above, other common causes of death include, though not limited to, accidents, strokes, and diseases of the respiratory systems, with rates of 64.7, 41.1, and 34.7 deaths per 100,000 populations, respectively.
- Dementia, and especially Alzheimer’s disease, which may become a lot more common in the future because of increasing older populations, was seventh with 31 deaths per 100,000 people or 3.4 percent of total deaths, according to the CDC.
- The number of deaths in the United States in 2021 was estimated to be 3.5 million, which was 80,000 higher than the previous year.
- The increase in mortality rates is related to the reduction in life expectancy, with women’s and men’s life expectancies being 0.6 and 0.7 years lower than the year before, respectively.
US Life Expectancy At Birth
(Reference: statista.com)
- As per US death statistics, life expectancy at birth for the people living in the United States of America in 2022 was almost still around 77.43 years, the same value recorded for the year 2021.
- Life expectancy at birth is defined as the average number of years that a newborn infant can be expected to live under the existing mortality rates at the time of their birth.
- This metric is useful when examining the health and mortality situation of a particular area without factoring in any changes in the state of health, the availability of medical care, or the overall social conditions that influence the probability of death in the population over time.
- The absence of significant differences in life expectancy from 2021 to 2022 indicates that, even though there might have been shifts with respect to specific causes of mortality, the overall life expectancy trends within the population did not vary during this time.
Causes Of Infant Death In The US
(Reference: statista.com)
- Congenital malformations, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are the most common causes of infant mortality in the U.S. Congenital malformations were responsible for nearly 19% of total infant deaths in 2022.
- Infant mortality is the term used for the death of a child who is less than one year old.
- In 2020, the number of infant deaths in the United States stood at approximately 19,578, even though the IMR has been on the rise for several decades now, declining from 9.4 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to about 5.4 per 1,000 in 2021.
- Nonetheless, infant mortality rates are not constant across states or regions; for example, in 2021, Mississippi’s infant mortality rate was 9.39 per 1,000 live births, while North Dakota’s rate was 2.77 per 1,000 live births.
- SIDS, which is the third leading cause of infant deaths in u.s.a. occurs in about 42 of every 100000 live-born infants.
- It is the sudden death of a healthy infant, which usually occurs during sleep and for no apparent reason.
- The particular pathology of the disease process associated with SIDS has not been discovered. Still, disease processes in the part of the brain that controls breathing while sleeping may be implicated.
- In 2021, approximately 1,458 infants died from infant SIDS in the country. Sudden).
- There is more incidence of sudden unexpected infant death in Mississippi and Alabama, and the least incidence is in Vermont and Massachusetts.
Deaths Due To Violence And Substance Abuse
- Suicide is anticipated to be one of the most prevalent killers in the year 2024, with approximately 48,000 deaths reported, which is about 1.6% of total deaths.
- These death statistics show the prevalence of illness associated with economic or social stress. For this reason, a staggering productivity loss of about $70 billion a year due to suicide is a burden for the economy.
- The issue of opioid abuse remains a great concern as a health problem. The year 2024 recorded drug overdoses at approximately 106,000 deaths or 3.5% of total deaths.
- The annual costs of care fights with legalization and loss of work connected with drug overdose deaths reach an astronomical $1 trillion.
- As for the murders in the USA, they cover around 20,000 deaths in the year 2024, or about 0.7% of all deaths.
- The economic toll that homicide and other related violent offenses are progressively costing the US over $250 billion annually.
Conclusion
The US death statistics show an intricate structure that encompasses chronic diseases, unintentional injuries, drug use, and resulting violence.– Chronic conditions, unintentional injuries, substance abuse, and violence. While Heart Disease and Cancer continue to rank first and second in deaths, respectively, these too have chronic disease and mental illness issues, with substance use-dependent youths and other populations being particularly more affected. It is important to interpret these statistics in the context of the public health priorities and strategic interventions that will be put in place.
FAQ.
Heart disease and cancer, as the first and second leading causes of death in the US, dominate statistics as in the past. Other diseases which contribute significantly include COVID-19, injuries, diseases of the respiratory system, and Alzheimer’s disease. There are other lethal causes, such as suicide and homicide due to gun violence and opioids, where addiction and mental health are on the rise.
COVID-19 was recorded as the third leading death cause in the year 2021, where it constituted approximately 12% of all deaths contributed in that year. Heart attacks and malignancies remained at the top cause of death while the likes of Martha’s Alzheimer’s and diabetes plus respiratory illness cases also continued to cause death.
There have been improvements in infant mortality rates in the US due to many reasons ranging from improved medical technologies to enhanced services for expectant mothers. The per diem rate was reported to have been 9.4 for every one thousand live births in the year 1990, dropping to about 5.4 per thousand live births in 2021. The main reasons are congenital malformations, low birth weight and SIDS, which rates at about 42 deaths for every 100000 live births.
Abuse of substances, especially Opioids, has had a great toll on mortality, with estimates of around 106000 overdose deaths anticipated for the year 2024. This includes the current opioid crisis, which had reported about 70600 deaths caused by Fentanyl-related complications in the year 2021.
The average life expectancy in the United States in 2022 was about 77.4 years and did not record any significant change from 2021. This kind of consistency implies that the general death trend has remained more or less the same over time, even where some specific causes of death have gone up or down.
Maitrayee, after completing her graduation in Electrical Engineering, transitioned into the world of writing following a series of technical roles. She specializes in technology and Artificial Intelligence, bringing her experience as an Academic Research Analyst and Freelance Writer, with a focus on education and healthcare under the Australian system. From an early age, writing and painting have been her passions, leading her to pursue a full-time career in writing. In addition to her professional endeavors, Maitrayee also manages a YouTube channel dedicated to cooking.
