Deaths per 100,000 people dropped by 4.6% last year compared to 2024, according to data recently released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What’s behind the drop?
While the CDC didn’t include a specific reason why the death rate decreased last year, Newsweek noted that Farida Ahmad, a CDC health scientist and co-author of the death rate report, said declining overdose and COVID-19 deaths contributed. As people were dying from the viral disease during the pandemic, overdose deaths also skyrocketed.
Then, they dropped dramatically in 2024, to the surprise of experts. At the time, Audacy reported that researchers were studying the reason behind the drop, including increased use of the life-saving drug Narcan, changes to the composition of street drugs and more.
Last year drug overdose deaths continued to drop in the U.S., CDC data released this May indicated. That provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics showed estimated 69,973 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. last year, a 14% drop compared to 2024.
COVID-19 deaths have also decreased in the years since the pandemic ended. In 2023, it was the 10th leading cause of death in the nation and in 2024 it dropped off the top 10 list.
Overall, an estimated 3.095 million people died in the U.S. last year at a rate of 689.2 per 100,000. That is a record low, according to the CDC. Rates fell for every age group and for both men and women and most racial groups. Even so, the death rate did not decrease for American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Asian people.
Deaths from the two top leading causes of death – heart disease and cancer – also increased last year and the third leading cause of death was unintentional injury, a category that often has lags in reporting. Most of the causes of death remained the same as the previous year, but influenza and pneumonia rose to the eighth leading cause of death and suicide dropped from the 10th to the 11th leading cause
Earlier this year, Boston University researchers observed in a study that the U.S. has lower life expectancy than many other wealthy nations despite its large economy and top hospitals. They found that cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, and stroke, “were the leading cause of excess mortality,” in the U.S. compared to those other countries, along with drug poisonings, alcohol-related diseases, and suicides.
“Data are based on 99.9% of all 2025 death records received and processed by the National Center for Health Statistics as of May 10, 2026. Comparisons are made with final 2024 data,” the CDC explained of the recent report showing a death rate decrease. Due to reporting lags, death counts may eventually be higher.
