What do Americans die of most often?

In the 12 months through June 2025, heart disease (204 deaths per 100,000 people) and cancer (183) were the leading causes of death in the US, and unintentional injuries came third at 56. Unintentional injuries include accidental overdoses, falls and traffic crashes. The numbers are provisional and may change a little as records are completed.

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Key facts

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

  • Heart disease has the highest figure, 203.6, followed by Cancer (182.9) and Unintentional injuries (55.7).
  • Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis has the lowest figure, 15.4, followed by Kidney disease (16.5) and Influenza and pneumonia (16.7).
  • The highest is 13 times the lowest.

This chart is one of the 50 in The U.S. in 50 charts, 2026, a yearly report of the key numbers on how the country is doing.

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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 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/leading-causes-of-death (accessed November 4, 2026).

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The data

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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 in a year
Heart disease 203.6
Cancer 182.9
Unintentional injuries 55.7
Stroke 49.8
Chronic lower respiratory diseases 43.8
Alzheimer disease 34.5
Diabetes 28.1
Influenza and pneumonia 16.7
Kidney disease 16.5
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis 15.4

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