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Top Ten Causes Of
Death In The US
Approximately how many
deaths occur in the US each year? What are the top ten causes of
death? What percentage of total deaths is caused by the top 10 causes?
By the top 3 causes?
To
learn not only about the top causes of death but also how many actual
deaths are caused by these diseases or injuries, and what percentage
of all deaths they cause, we consulted figures from a National Center
for Health Statistics Data Brief published in December 2014 entitled
“Mortality in the United States, 2013”
A
total of approximately 2.5 million deaths (2,596,993) took place in
2013. There were 1.5 times as many births (3,932,181) as deaths in
2013. The top 10 causes of death accounted for almost three-quarters
of all deaths (73.6%). The percentage of all deaths for each cause is
listed in the table below. Strikingly, some of the top ten causes
account for a relatively small percentage of total deaths. Also, the
largest category of deaths is not from the largest single cause--
heart disease (611,105)-- but rather from the category of residual
causes beyond the top ten causes (686,682).
Table 1.
|
Cause of death |
# of deaths |
% of all deaths |
|
All causes |
2,596,993 |
100 |
|
Heart disease |
611,105 |
23.5 |
|
Cancer |
584,881 |
22.5 |
|
Chronic lower resp disease |
149,205 |
5.7 |
|
Accidents |
130,557 |
5.0 |
|
Cerebrovascular disease |
128,978 |
5.0 |
|
Alzheimer’s |
84,767 |
3.3 |
|
Diabetes |
75,578 |
2.9 |
|
Influenza and Pneumonia |
56,979 |
2.2 |
|
Kidney disease |
47,112 |
1.8 |
|
Suicide |
41,149 |
1.6 |
|
All other causes |
686,682 |
26.4 |
|
The
actual adjusted death rates are presented below. They remain
essentially unchanged in 2013 compared to 2012, but there has been a
15.8% decrease in the age adjusted death rate between 2000 and 2013
falling from 869.0 to 731.9 deaths per 100,000 standard population.
Life expectancy was 78.8 years in 2013 up from 76.6 years in 2000.
Figure 3.
Age-adjusted death rates for the 10 leading causes of death: United
States, 2012 and 2013
NOTES: Causes of death are ranked
according to number of deaths.
Adapted from CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System,
Mortality. ■
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