The U.S. death rate in 2024 dropped back to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported nearly 3.1 million deaths overall last year. Heart disease and cancer accounted for more than 40% of those deaths.
Drug overdoses and other unintentional injuries were the third-leading cause of death. COVID-19 was still responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, but for the first time since the pandemic began, it fell out of the nation’s top 10 leading causes of death.
In 2023, there were nearly 3.1 million deaths that occurred in the U.S. Among the deaths, 76,446 were attributed in some way to COVID-19, either as an underlying or contributing cause of death. In 2022, there were 245,614 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
COVID-19 was the fourth-leading cause of death in 2022 and third-leading cause in 2021. The CDC said that COVID-19 was a cause of 460,000 deaths in 2021.
Heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries remained the top causes of death in the U.S. in 2024. Heart disease was attributed to 683,037 deaths, followed by cancer with 619,812 deaths and unintentional injuries following with 194,488 fatalities.
Here is a look at the top 10 leading causes of death in 2024:
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Unintentional injury
- Stroke
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases
- Alzheimer's disease
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
- Suicide
