Final U.S. mortality figures for a year usually come out 11 months after it ends, because some causes of death take time to investigate and every record must be processed and reviewed. Provisional data, built from preliminary death certificates sent to CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), give an earlier look. Farida B. Ahmad, Jodi A. Cisewski and Robert N. Anderson of NCHS summarized the provisional count for 2023.
The headline numbers
| 2022 (final) | 2023 (provisional) | |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 3,279,857 | 3,090,582 |
| Age-adjusted rate per 100,000 | 798.8 | 750.4 (6.1% lower) |
| Males | 954.5 | 884.2 |
| Females | 666.1 | 632.8 |
| COVID-19-associated deaths | 245,614 (58.7 per 100,000) | 76,446 (18.2) — 68.9% fewer |
| COVID-19's rank among causes | 4th | 10th |
| Share of deaths with COVID-19 as the underlying cause | 5.7% (186,552) | 1.6% |
The three leading causes in 2023 were heart disease (680,909 deaths, down from 702,880), cancer (613,331, up from 608,371) and unintentional injury (222,518).
Leading causes of death, 2023 (provisional). Credit: CDC, MMWR.
Who died
Rates fell for every age group from 2022 to 2023, though not significantly for children aged 0–4. People 85 and older still had a higher rate than any other age group.
| Age | Rate 2022 | Rate 2023 | COVID-19 rate 2022 | COVID-19 rate 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1 | 558.0 | 552.0 | 6.7 | 2.7 |
| 1–4 | 28.0 | 27.3 | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| 5–14 | 15.3 | 14.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| 15–24 | 79.5 | 76.8 | 1.5 | 0.3 |
| 25–34 | 163.4 | 148.1 | 5.3 | 0.9 |
| 35–44 | 255.4 | 237.2 | 11.9 | 2.0 |
| 45–54 | 453.3 | 411.7 | 30.3 | 4.7 |
| 55–64 | 992.1 | 899.4 | 72.8 | 13.7 |
| 65–74 | 1,978.7 | 1,809.4 | 157.9 | 39.3 |
| 75–84 | 4,708.2 | 4,345.3 | 383.7 | 126.6 |
| 85+ | 14,389.6 | 14,285.8 | 1,129.4 | 488.1 |
Crude rates per 100,000.
Age-adjusted rates fell for every racial and ethnic group. Overall, Black Americans had the highest rate and multiracial Americans the lowest. For COVID-19, White and American Indian or Alaska Native people had the highest rates in 2023 — a change from 2020–2022, when American Indian and Alaska Native people had the highest.
| Group (non-Hispanic unless noted) | Rate 2022 | Rate 2023 | COVID-19 rate 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 947.9 | 830.6 | 18.7 |
| Asian | 417.5 | 387.9 | 10.7 |
| Black or African American | 1,002.8 | 924.3 | 17.0 |
| Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | 782.0 | 730.1 | 13.8 |
| White | 822.2 | 778.1 | 19.6 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 614.7 | 559.0 | 13.0 |
| Multiracial | 366.8 | 352.1 | 7.0 |
Age-adjusted rates per 100,000.
Weekly deaths, from all causes and from COVID-19, peaked in early January and late December.
Deaths by week, 2023 (provisional). Credit: CDC, MMWR.
How the count was made
- Data: death certificates for U.S. residents who died in the United States in January–December 2023, as received by July 21, 2024 — more than 99% of the year's deaths. Residents of U.S. territories and foreign countries are excluded.
- Causes are coded under the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, and ranked by underlying cause. The underlying cause is the disease or injury that started the chain of events leading to death; a contributing cause is another condition on the certificate.
- COVID-19 deaths include any certificate listing it as underlying or contributing cause.
- Rates use the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023, population estimates; differences cited are statistically significant.
- Age was unknown for 71 people and race and ethnicity for 10,068 (0.33%).
Caveats
- The numbers will change. Provisional 2022 counts came in slightly below the final ones, because some causes, such as unintentional injuries, are reported with a longer lag. The final 2023 total will probably be higher than this count.
- Jurisdictions report at different speeds, so a late-reporting place with many deaths in one group could shift national figures.
- Race and Hispanic ethnicity are sometimes misrecorded on death certificates, for example for American Indian or Alaska Native and Asian people, so some groups' rates may be too high or too low.
Early estimates let researchers and policymakers spot shifts in mortality sooner than final data allow, and aim interventions at the groups with the highest death rates.
Sources
Based on Ahmad FB, Cisewski JA, Anderson RN, "Mortality in the United States — Provisional Data, 2023," MMWR, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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