Covid-19 was third leading cause of death last year, CDC confirms in first data



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The death rate from 2019 to 2020 increased 15.9%, from 715.2 to 828.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the report.

Researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics analyzed data from death certificates from the National Vital Statistics System, closely examining deaths among U.S. residents between January and December 2020.

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“COVID-19 was the third underlying cause of death in 2020, replacing suicide as one of the top 10 causes of death,” the researchers wrote in the report. Suicide was previously the 10th leading cause of death, but was struck off the list for 2020 as deaths from Covid-19 increased.

The researchers found in their report that around 3.36 million deaths occurred last year. Covid-19 has been reported as the underlying cause or contributing cause of death for nearly 378,000 – or about 11.3% – of those deaths. Data showed that heart disease caused 690,882 deaths and cancer 598,932 deaths.

The data also showed that, overall, death rates were highest among Black and Native American or Alaska Native communities, adults aged 85 and older, and men. The Covid-19 death rate was specifically the highest among Hispanics, according to the CDC report.

The data is provisional – and therefore numbers and death rates may change as more information is received. Because the investigation of the causes of death takes time, the final data for a given year is usually released about 11 months after the end of the calendar year.

In January, CDC statisticians shared with CNN that Covid-19 was likely the third leading cause of death in the United States for last year.

Life expectancy in the United States also fell by a full year in the first half of 2020, according to an interim report released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics in February. The report shows that life expectancy in the United States has fallen to 77.8 years, returning to what it was in 2006.

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