What do Americans aged 85 and over die of most often?

In the 12 months through June 2025, heart disease was the leading cause of death for Americans aged 85 and over, at 3,759 deaths per 100,000 people that age, 2.3 times the rate for cancer (1,631). Stroke (1,064) and Alzheimer disease (1,039) came next. The numbers are provisional.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

The value axis starts at zero. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

A tall picture for Pinterest or an Instagram story, with the question, answer, source, date and this page's address.

Save to Pinterest Download tall image
Chartly Pro: downloads and embeds without the credit. Join the waitlist

It doesn't exist yet. Tell us what you'd use it for, and we'll email you once when it's ready. Downloads and embeds with the credit stay free.

Nothing to pay. We'll email you once, when Pro is ready. See our privacy policy.

Key facts

Measure: Deaths per 100,000 people aged 85 and over in a year. Written from the data below.

  • Heart disease has the highest figure, 3,759.1, followed by Cancer (1,630.7) and Stroke (1,064.4).
  • Hypertension has the lowest figure, 247.9, followed by Kidney disease (257.2) and Diabetes (271.4).
  • The highest is 15 times the lowest.

Teachers: add this chart to a class assignment, one link to post in Google Classroom, Canvas or Moodle.

Source and date

Source
CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Quarterly provisional estimates of mortality
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “What do Americans aged 85 and over die of most often?” Chart. Data: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Quarterly provisional estimates of mortality, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/mortality-dashboard.htm (data as of June 30, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/causes-of-death-ages-85-and-over (accessed November 4, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes. Need it without the credit? Join the Chartly Pro waitlist.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Cause of death Deaths per 100,000 people aged 85 and over in a year
Heart disease 3,759.1
Cancer 1,630.7
Stroke 1,064.4
Alzheimer disease 1,039.2
Chronic lower respiratory diseases 567.8
Unintentional injuries 428.1
Influenza and pneumonia 285.1
Diabetes 271.4
Kidney disease 257.2
Hypertension 247.9

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.