The mortality rate of the United States decreased by 3.8% in 2024 when Covid fell from the 10 main causes of death for the first time in four years, according to new provisional federal data.
The general rate decreased from 750.5 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 722 percent, according to the report of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This marks the lowest mortality rate registered since 2020, during the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and follow decreases that began in 2022.
The report also found that general deaths fell from 3.09 million in 2023 to 3.07 million in 2024.
In addition, the report showed that the three main causes of death remained equally 2023 to 2024, with heart disease as the main cause, followed by cancer and involuntary injuries, respectively.
Suicide replaced COVID-19 as the tenth underlying cause of underlying death, eliminating the disease from the list of the main 10 for the first time since 2020.
“‘It is quite remarkable for Covid-19 to fell from the Top 10 and suicide, which had fallen in recent years, qualifies again,” News Farida Ahmad, corresponding author of the report and scientific health scientist of NCHS, told ABC. “I think it’s a quite interesting finding given where we spend the last five years.”
Ahmad said less Covid deaths in 2024 compared to 2023 can be a reason behind the 3.8%decrease.
“Since he arrived at the scene in 2020, Covid was one of the 10 main main causes of death,” said Ahmad. “It began as a third cause and, in 2024, we see that it is not classified at all, in reality. Then, it is still among the 15 main causes, but not in the Top 10”.
Dr. Sharonne Hayes, professor of cardiovascular medicine in May Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, agreed that fewer cases of COVID-19 probably drive the reduction of mortality.
“I think there is a little less covid, right? I mean, that’s part of that,” he told ABC News. “I think that pandemic was a time for both deaths related to COVID, but also only the increase in risk factors, particularly around cardiovascular diseases, people’s lifestyles were less healthy. And maybe let’s return to more where we are before.”
Ahmad said another driver of the fall in deaths could be the decrease in drug overdose deaths.
A CDC report published in May Drug overdose deaths in the United States fell by almost 27% in 2024 at the lowest levels observed in five years.
Dr. Katie Schmitz, a visiting professor of Medicine of the Department of Medicine and Epidemiologist of Cancer of the University of Pittsburgh, told ABC News that the causes of death of death continue to be heart disease and deaths related to cancer due to an aging population, as well as underlying factors such as obesity.
Schmitz said we have an increase in the proportion of the population with these comorbidities and it is important to highlight that access to medical care can be limited, particularly for rural populations.
Other main causes of death in the report included stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.
The report also found that mortality rates decreased from 2023 to 2024 among all racial/ethnic groups. The rates in 2024 were lower for multi -regular people with 332.3 percent and the highest for the black population with 884 percent.
Mortality rates decreased from 2023 to 2024 for all age groups, except babies under one year, according to the report. Mortality rates in 2024 were lower for children between the ages of 5 and 14 years to 14.4 percent and the highest for people 85 years or more than 13,835.5 percent.
Schmitz said that investments must focus on prevention, such as addressing obesity rates to the increase, and the first projections, which may vary with the socioeconomic state and geography.
Hayes said that making changes in lifestyle is difficult, but it is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of some of the main causes of death, including heart disease and cancer.
“Either eating more vegetables, [decreasing] Saturated fat, maintaining a healthy weight will help stroke, cancer and the risk of heart disease, as well as liver disease, kidney disease and diabetes, “he said.” In addition to involuntary injury and suicides, virtually anything else on that list would be affected by lifestyle. “
Dr. Megha Gupta is a medical resident of neurology at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital/University of Washington in St. Louis and member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
