COVID-19 was the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States in 2022, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, and the overall U.S. death rate fell 5.3%.
COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021, the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, behind heart disease and cancer, according to the CDC. Last year, COVID-19 was reported as the underlying cause or a contributing cause in an estimated 244,986 deaths, a 47% drop from the 462,193 deaths reported in 2021.
"In 2022, approximately 3,273,705 deaths occurred in the United States," the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "The age-adjusted rate, 832.8 deaths per 100,000 standard population, represented a decrease of 5.3% from 879.7 in 2021."
The report said COVID-19 was the underlying cause of 186,702 deaths, fourth behind heart disease (699,659), cancer (607,790) and unintentional injury (218,064). COVID-19 was the underlying cause for 5.7% of all deaths in 2022, decreasing from 12.0% (416,893) in 2021.
Heart disease and cancer deaths increased in 2022 compared with 2021 (accounting for 695,547 and 605,213, deaths respectively). Deaths related to unintentional injuries, largely driven by a high number of drug overdose deaths, dropped slightly (there were 219,487 in 2021).
The report said in 2022, total death rates were lowest among people ages 5-14 years (14.8 per 100,000) and highest among people 85 and older (15,605.2), similar to patterns in 2021. Overall death rates decreased for all age groups 15 and older from 2021 to 2022, but the death rate increased from 25.0 to 26.9 per 100,000 among people ages 1-4 during the same period.
"Age-adjusted death rates were higher among males compared with females in 2021 (1,048.0 and 733.3, respectively) and 2022 (984.8 and 700.9, respectively)," the report said. "However, from 2021 to 2022, the death rates decreased 6.0% among males and 4.4% among females."
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