Leading Causes of Death, United States

All races and origins, both sexes, all ages

CDC's Office of Women's Health (OWH) extracted death data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) Report: Leading Causes of Deaths for 2021. The National Vital Statistics System uses death certificate records to analyze and determine the leading causes of death in the United States and territories. The data presented represent the total number of reported deaths for all races and origins, both sexes, and all ages. For more detailed information on the number of deaths reported for each race and Hispanic origin, please refer to the NVSS Report Table 1 (page 18): National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 73, Number 4 April 8, 2024.

Leading Causes of Death in Females - 2021

Leading Causes of Death in Males - 2021

Highlights

• In 2021, the total reported number of deaths for the 10 leading causes was 3,464,231 (74.5%) of all deaths.
• Overall, the leading cause of death for both sexes across all races and origins, and ages is heart disease.
• The top three leading causes of death for males and females combined (heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19) accounted for 50% of all deaths (48% for females) in 2021.
• The leading cause of death for both sexes was heart disease; however, the rankings for the leading causes of death varied among ethnicities.
• The leading cause of death for female non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders (21.2%) is COVID-19.
• Among males, Hispanic/Latino people had the highest proportion of COVID-19 deaths (23.2%) in 2021.

About the data

• The leading causes of death are of all causes of deaths for all ages.
• The National Vital Statistics System receives and analyzes death information from U.S. death certificates to determine the leading causes of death.
• The registration of death events and issuing death certificates resides within the individual state vital statistic offices of the 50 U.S. States, plus Washington, DC and New York City, and the 5 U.S. territories.
• Certain causes of deaths are not individually presented because they are a part of a broader category (e.g., lung cancer is included under "cancer").

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