For the first time since the pandemic began, COVID-19 dropped out of the nation’s top 10 causes of death in 2024, new U.S. government data shows.
Overall U.S. death rates also fell to their lowest level since 2020, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Heart disease and cancer remained the leading causes of death. In all, 683,037 deaths due to heart disease and 619,812 due to cancer were reported last year — both up slightly from 2023.
Unintentional injuries ranked third, while suicide moved into the top 10 for the first time, displacing COVID.
“Heart disease is still number one, and it’s definitely not going in the right direction," Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research in San Diego, told STAT News.
Further, “there are many thousands of people dying of COVID still," he added.
After unintentional injuries, the list continued with stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.
Topol said these leading causes are largely preventable through lifestyle changes such as exercise and diet.
“These numbers are not encouraging,” he told STAT News. “We’re talking about diseases that are eminently preventable, just with lifestyle factors, but we have 75% of the population that doesn’t do even the minimum requirement of exercise.”
Despite the overall drop in death rates, some disparities remain:
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Black Americans continue to have the highest death rates among racial and ethnic groups.
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Men face significantly higher death rates than women: 844.8 deaths per 100,000 compared with 613.5 per 100,000 for women.
Topol added that U.S. health outcomes still lag behind many other countries, pointing to gaps in chronic disease prevention, life expectancy and maternal and infant death rates.
He expressed dismay about cuts in federal funding for health-related studies.
“The reduction of research support isn’t going to help matters,” he said. “It’s the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Where is the prevention?”