There were nearly 417,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States in 2021. In 2022 there were 187,000 deaths, then in 2023 there were 50,000.
A massive increase in U.S. mortality was caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, which led to a reduction in life expectancy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today’s life expectancy has begun to recover. The CDC stated in March that life expectancy had dropped to 76.4 in 2021. In 2022, the CDC said it would increase by 1.1 in 2022 and by 0.9 in 2023. This is almost back to pre-pandemic rates.
According to the CDC, 2022 and 203 are experiencing consecutive increases due to a decline in age-adjusted mortality rates for almost all major causes of death. This includes heart disease as well as COVID-19. According to a recent report from the CDC showing a decrease in drug overdoses, 2023’s rebound coincides also with a declining rate of deaths due to drugs.
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American Life Expectancy
The CDC reports that life expectancy increased to 78.4 in 2023 from 77.5 in 2022, and 76.4 in 2021. These estimates are a calculation of how many years an average baby born in the year 2023 would expect to survive based on death rates for that particular year. These life expectancies, calculated consistently by the CDC and a useful metric to assess the mortality rates of a given population, are based on the mortality rate for a specific year. However, it’s important to remember that these estimates only reflect the mortality rate for a single year. They do not take into account future advances in medicine or decreases. In the U.S. in 2023 there will be around 3,091,000 deaths, but in 2022, 2021, and 2022, it was 3,280,000, and then 3,464,000. The life expectancies from these deaths remain below the level pre-pandemic (78.8 and the peak prior to that of 78.9), but they are improving due to the consecutive decreases in the death rates of the 10 most common causes.
Top Causes of Death.
For all three years the 10 most common causes of death included heart disease (heart disease), cancer, accidental injury, strokes, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, kidney diseases, chronic liver and cirrhosis and COVID-19. The death rate of each 10th cause decreased between 2021-2022 except for cancer. Between 2022-2023 they also declined with the exception of kidney disease. Heart disease was the number one cause of death in all three years – 2021,2022 and 2023. Heart disease was the leading cause of death in all three years — 2021, 2022, and 2023. This represents a decline of 3.8 per cent in the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease between 2021-2022, and another decline of 3.1 per cent between 2022-2023.
The three-year period saw a decline in heart disease deaths, followed by cancer in each of the years. Unintentional injuries were next in 2022-2023. Age-adjusted death rates for cancer declined between 2021 and 20, while death rates from unintentional injuries declined by 1.1%. While cancer mortality rates were roughly the same in 2022 and 20,23, deaths from unintentional injuries decreased by an extra 2.7 percent.
The CDC reports that COVID-19 was the cause of some significant changes in each year, a decrease of 57.3 percent for age-adjusted deaths between 2021-2022, and another 73.3 between 2022-2023. COVID-19 was responsible for 104.1 deaths in the U.S. in 2021. In 2022, the number of COVID-19-related deaths fell to 44.5 in 2022, and then 11.9 in 2023. It went from being the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021 to becoming the fourth and tenth most common in 2023.
The increase in life expectancy is largely a result of the decreases in death rates for the top causes of deaths, but there are other factors that are contributing to this. The CDC reports that drug overdoses, which do not appear in March or December’s mortality report as a major cause of death, decreased between 2022-2023. Age-adjusted death rates dropped by 4.0 per cent, going from 32.6 to 31.3 deaths for every 100,000 Americans. It is the first time that age-adjusted death rates from drug overdoses have declined since 2018, when 20.7 people died per 100,000. This is a promising development after years of increasing overdose death rates and could be a sign that future decreases are on the way.
