US death rate continues to fall

According to provisional data from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics released last month, the U.S. death rate fell to 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, marking a record low.

Overall, CDC found that 3,094,593 deaths occurred in the United States in 2025. Since 2021, when the U.S. death rate spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, the death rate has fallen by 22%.

Death rates were lowest among children ages five to 14 (14 deaths per 100,000 people) and highest among people ages 85 and older (12,787.5 deaths per 100,000 people). Between 2024 and 2025, death rates decreased for all age groups and for both men and women.

However, even with declining death rates, significant disparities continue. American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander people were the only groups that saw an increase in death rates between 2024 and 2025. Black Americans also continue to have the highest death rates of all racial/ethnic groups, which was 1.3 times higher than the overall rate.

Men also continued to have significantly higher death rates compared to women (811.1 deaths per 100,000 vs. 582.9 per 100,000, respectively).

Ultimately, CDC found that Southern states had the highest mortality rates across almost every chronic disease, with Mississippi appearing in the top five states for highest mortality across eight chronic conditions.

Meanwhile, states in the Northeast and West Coast often had the lowest mortality rates for chronic diseases, including New York, which ranked in the lowest five states across six conditions.

The highest and lowest mortality rates for each disease were:

• Alzheimer's disease: Mississippi had the highest death rate while the District of Columbia had the lowest.
• Cancer: Kentucky had the highest death rate while Hawaii had the lowest.
• Chronic lower respiratory disease: Oklahoma had the highest death rate while Hawaii had the lowest.
• Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: New Mexico had the highest death rate while the District of Columbia had the lowest.
• Diabetes: West Virginia had the highest death rate while Connecticut had the lowest.
• Heart disease: Oklahoma had the highest death rate while Alaska had the lowest.
• Hypertension: Mississippi had the highest death rate while Wyoming had the lowest.
• Kidney disease: Arkansas had the highest death rate while Vermont had the lowest.
• Parkinson's disease: Utah had the highest death rate while New York had the lowest.
• Stroke: Delaware had the highest death rate while New York had the lowest.