The U.S. death rate has dropped to pre-pandemic levels as COVID-19 fell out of the top 10 leading causes of death, according to new research.

The death rate fell by 3.8 percent in 2024, with the overall rate declining from 750.5 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 722 per 100,000 last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported.

This is the lowest the country’s death rate has been since 2019, when the CDC reported a national death rate of 715.2 deaths per 100,000 people. That rate shot up by 16.8 percent in 2020 to 835.4 deaths per 100,000.

That same year, COVID was ranked as the third-leading cause of death in the country.

Fewer COVID-19 deaths are likely driving the decline in the nation’s overall death rate, Farida Ahm

See Full Page