U.S. death rate drops to record low in 2025, CDC reports

The U.S. death rate dropped to its lowest level on record in 2025, according to provisional data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this week.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that 3,094,593 total deaths occurred in the U.S. last year. The nation’s overall age-adjusted death rate was 689.2 per 100,000 people, a 4.6% decrease from 2024’s rate of 722.1 and the lowest figure recorded in U.S. history, according to the agency.

The death rate fell across all age groups and for both sexes. The age-adjusted rate stood at 811.1 per 100,000 for males and 582.9 per 100,000 for females.

Age-adjusted death rates varied widely by race and ethnicity. The rate was lowest among the multiracial non-Hispanic population, at 187.3 per 100,000 people, and highest among the Black non-Hispanic population, at 869.0 per 100,000. Rates increased for American Indian and Alaska Native people and for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander people, while the change for Asian people was not statistically significant, the CDC said.

Heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries remained the three leading causes of death nationwide in 2025, with heart disease accounting for 694,708 deaths and cancer for 622,832. Death rates were lowest for children ages 5 to 14, at 14.0 per 100,000, and highest for people 85 and older, at 12,787.5 per 100,000, mirroring the pattern seen in 2024.

Influenza and pneumonia climbed from the 11th leading cause of death in 2024 to the eighth in 2025, while suicide dropped from 10th to 11th, the report found.

Farida Ahmad, a CDC health scientist and co-author of the report, said the biggest factor behind the record-low death rate was the continued decline in fatal drug overdoses, with a further drop in COVID-19 deaths also contributing, Newsweek reported, citing agency officials.

Separate, preliminary CDC surveillance data — not part of the mortality report itself — shows roughly 70,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2025, about 14% fewer than in 2024 and the third consecutive annual decline, according to preliminary CDC data reported by The Associated Press. Declines were seen across fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine deaths, though Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico saw notable increases.

Separately, the CDC reported in April that the nation’s general fertility rate fell to 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 2025, a 1% decline from 2024’s rate of 53.8. The number of U.S. births also dropped 1% last year, to 3,606,400.