Causes of Death (2017)
According to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics, the United States recorded 2,081,531 deaths across the ten leading causes in 2017, classified by ICD-10 chapter and tracked in a complete 9,690-record grid spanning 1999–2017. Select a cause below to see all 50 states and DC ranked by age-adjusted rate, with year-over-year trends drawn from the CDC WONDER Underlying Cause of Death database. See the methodology for how rates are calculated.
| # | Cause of Death | Deaths | Avg Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heart disease | 647,457 | 166.0 |
| 2 | Cancer | 599,108 | 155.0 |
| 3 | Unintentional injuries | 169,936 | 54.0 |
| 4 | CLRD | 160,201 | 43.8 |
| 5 | Stroke | 146,383 | 37.4 |
| 6 | Alzheimer's disease | 121,404 | 32.1 |
| 7 | Diabetes | 83,564 | 22.0 |
| 8 | Influenza and pneumonia | 55,672 | 14.9 |
| 9 | Kidney disease | 50,633 | 12.8 |
| 10 | Suicide | 47,173 | 16.5 |
How This List Is Built
Causes are classified under the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10). Death counts and age-adjusted rates are reproduced from CDC NCHS mortality files (NVSS), retrieved via CDC WONDER. Age-adjustment uses the year 2000 US standard population, allowing fair comparison across causes regardless of the age structure of the affected population. Suppressed death counts (<10) appear as unavailable rather than zero.