US Life Expectancy on Track to Reach Record High as Death Rate Falls to Record Low in 2025
The decline was driven by fewer COVID-19 and overdose deaths, while flu and pneumonia rose 17% and returned to the top 10 causes.
- On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the U.S. age-adjusted death rate fell 4.6% in 2025 to 689.2 deaths per 100,000, marking the lowest mortality level in over a century of federal recordkeeping.
- Officials attributed the overall decline to sustained reductions in fatal drug overdoses and a diminished mortality toll from COVID-19 since the pandemic peak in 2021.
- Influenza and pneumonia deaths climbed 17% to 56,511 in 2025, moving the illness to eighth leading cause of death, following a severe 2024-25 flu season and rising vaccine skepticism.
- Despite the record-low national average, mortality rates rose for American Indian and Alaska Native populations, revealing persistent health inequities across racial and ethnic groups.
- Demographic experts suggest the record-low death rate likely indicates a new peak in U.S. life expectancy, while preliminary estimates enable researchers to identify mortality trends earlier for future public health planning.
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America’s Death Rate Just Hit A Historic Low—But The Top Killers Are Still Gaining Ground - Tampa Free Press
THE BREAKDOWN: A new provisional report from the National Center for Health Statistics reveals that the United States hit its lowest recorded age-adjusted death rate in history in 2025. Total deaths ticked up slightly to over 3.09 million due to a growing population, but the overall death rate dropped by 4.6% compared to 2024. Heart […] America’s Death Rate Just Hit A Historic Low—But The Top Killers Are Still Gaining Ground
US Death Rate Drops
The U.S. death rate dropped to a new low in 2025, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the report, an estimated 3,094,593 people died in the United States in 2025. The death rate was 689.2 per 100,000, a 4.6% decrease from 2024. “The age-adjusted death rate per 100,000 population was 811.1 for males and 582.9 for females,” the report says. Leading causes of death included heart disease, cancer, …
US Death Rate Drops to Record Low
The U.S. death rate hit a record low in 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on July 2. The age-adjusted death rate for 2025 was 689.2 per 100,000—a decline of 4.6 percent from 2024, and the lowest ever rate, according to a CDC report. The CDC comes up with the rate of deaths for the American population based on death records received and processed by its National Center for Health Statistics, and population data from the U.…
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