PlainHealth covers 19 years of finalized mortality data from 1999 through 2017, drawn from the CDC NCHS Leading Causes of Death dataset with age-adjusted rates from CDC WONDER. We use only finalized data, so the series will extend as CDC finalizes later years.

An age-adjusted death rate removes the effect of different age distributions between states, allowing fair comparisons. If you compared crude death rates between Florida (older population) and Utah (younger population), Florida would appear much higher even without any difference in underlying health. Age-adjusted rates use the year 2000 US standard population as a common reference.

ICD-10 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision) is the international standard for classifying causes of death on death certificates. The CDC organizes all US mortality data using ICD-10 codes. PlainHealth groups related codes into ICD-10 chapters, for example, all codes for heart disease, heart failure, and stroke are grouped under 'Diseases of the circulatory system.'

The CDC suppresses death counts below 10 in a given cell to protect individual privacy. 'N/A' on PlainHealth means the number of deaths was too small to be publicly reported. This is most common for rare causes of death in smaller or less populous states.

No. PlainHealth uses the finalized CDC NCHS Leading Causes of Death series, which runs from 1999 through 2017, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The series will extend into the pandemic years as CDC finalizes that data with comparable age-adjusted rates.

No. We display only finalized CDC data, where death certificates are complete and age-adjusted rates are settled. We deliberately exclude provisional later years, which can be revised, rather than show figures that may change.

No. PlainHealth is an independent data portal that presents publicly available CDC and NCHS mortality data in a more accessible format. We are not affiliated with the CDC, NCHS, or any government agency.