U.S. Deaths Declined 6% Last Year, as COVID-19 Slipped to 10th Leading Cause

COVID-19 has dropped to 10th place in the latest ranking of leading causes of death in the U.S., according to a new report.

Heart disease continues to be the deadliest condition, responsible for over 3 million deaths last year. A rise in drug overdose deaths has pushed "unintentional injuries" back up to the 3rd leading cause of death in 2023. THURSDAY, Aug.

8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A new government report reveals that deaths among Americans decreased by a significant 6.1% between 2022 and 2023. Much of this was due to COVID-19's ebbing effect on deaths.

During the pandemic, lost their lives, and in 2021 it was the third leading cause of death. However, new data shows that as vaccinations and natural immunity levels rose, the illness had dropped to 10th position in terms of lethality by 2023. Still, more than 76,000 people lost their lives either directly or indirectly from COVID last year, so it remains a dire threat, concluded a team of researchers at the U.

S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nevertheless, that's a nearly 69% decline compared to the nearly 246,000 lives lost to COVID in 2022.

The pandemic's impact on U.S. mortality has changed, concluded a team led by , of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

"In 2020, COVID-19 altered the rankings of leading causes of death substantially. The mortality burden of COVID-19 has decreased since then," the researchers said. Her team looked at U.

S. death data for the years 2019 through 2023, compiled by.