U.S. Provisional Death Rate Drops 4.6% in 2025 as Flu Deaths Surge, CDC Reports
By Christy Santhosh
July 2 (Reuters) — The U.S. provisional death rate fell 4.6% in 2025, with heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injuries still the top causes of mortality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
The age-adjusted death rate declined to 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people from 722.1 in the prior year, continuing a steady downward trend since it peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Farida Ahmad, lead author of the study, attributed the overall drop in part to a sustained decrease in fatal drug overdoses, which fall under the category of unintentional injuries or accidents.
But the report, produced by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, also highlighted a troubling uptick in respiratory infections. Deaths from influenza and pneumonia rose 17% in 2025, totaling 56,511, pushing the category from the 11th to the eighth leading cause of death in the country.
“The flu season, especially in January and February of 2025, was severe, leading to a lot of flu deaths,” Ahmad said.
Historically, severe flu seasons have been linked to increases in chronic disease fatalities. Ahmad noted that the roughly 1.6% rise in heart disease deaths in 2025 may also reflect that pattern.
According to the CDC, seasonal flu-related hospitalizations and outpatient visits for the 2024-25 season reached a 15-year high, signaling an unusually intense viral circulation period.
DEATH RATES ROSE AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS
Disparities persisted across racial and ethnic groups. The death rate for American Indian and Alaska Native people rose to 803.8 per 100,000, while for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander people, it increased to 746 per 100,000.
Black Americans continued to face the highest mortality rate of any group at 869 per 100,000, though that figure showed slight improvement from the previous year. The rate for Asian Americans remained roughly flat.
White Americans, who made up about 74.5% of all recorded deaths, saw their mortality rate fall to 724.2 per 100,000.
The CDC cautioned that the findings are based on provisional death certificate data and could change as additional records are processed. Some causes of death, particularly unintentional injuries, tend to be reported with longer delays and may be revised upward later.
The agency also noted that differences in reporting timeliness across states, potential misclassification of race and ethnicity on death certificates, and shifts in Census population estimates could affect some comparisons.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline Humer and Leroy Leo)