US death rate dropped back to pre-COVID levels in 2024, CDC report says
The death rate in the United States returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2024 as COVID-19 fell out of the top 10 leading causes of death, according to a published Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 quickly rose to the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in the first two years of the pandemic, pushing the age-adjusted death rate up to a peak of about 880 deaths for every 100,000 people in 2021. The overall U.S. death rate has fallen about 18% since then, and last year's 4% drop brought the U.S. death rate down to the lowest it's been since 2019.
There were 722 deaths for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2024 — nearly 3.1 million deaths overall — according to the provisional, age-adjusted data from the CDC. Final mortality data may change, but the latest data are based on 99.9% of all 2024 death records received and processed by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics as of June 1, 2025.
Heart disease and cancer remained the leading causes of death, accounting for more than 40% of all deaths.
And despite an unprecedented drop in 2024, drug overdoses and other unintentional injuries were the third leading cause of death in the U.S. for the third year in a row.
COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in 2022 and the 10th in 2023, according to CDC data. There were still deaths in the U.S. last year, but suicide moved up to the 10th leading cause of death, with nearly 49,000 lives lost in 2024.
Suicide mortality reached a in the U.S. in 2022 and has decreased only slightly in the years since. Millions of people have called, texted, or sent chats to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline since mid-2022; about a tenth of those individuals who reached out were routed to a , but the Trump administration ended that service in July.
Death rates decreased for most age groups in 2024, the new CDC report shows, but held steady for children ages 5 to 14 and for infants.
Infant mortality had been trending down in the U.S. for decades before , and the new CDC report shows that the infant mortality rate has still not recovered. Nearly 20,000 babies died before they turned 1 in 2024 — about 5.5 deaths for every 1,000 infants. In August, the Mississippi health department declared a over rising infant mortality rates in the state.
Age-adjusted death rates decreased for all race and ethnicity groups in 2024, but vast disparities remain. Rates were highest among the Black population, with more than 924 deaths for every 100,000 Black people in the U.S. — 28% higher than the overall rate.
Deaths decreased among both men and women in the U.S. in 2024, but the rate was significantly lower among women than it was for men.
If you or someone you know needs help, you can talk with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or sending a text message to 988, or you can .
