Covid-19 Was America's Third Leading Cause Of Death In 2020

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released provisional mortality data showing that Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. last year. Two reports were part of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report which found that there were 3,358,814 deaths in the U.S. in 2020 and that the age-adjusted death rate was 828.7 deaths per 100,000 of the population, a 15.9 percent increase on 2019.

Covid-19 was listed as the underlying cause of 345,323 deaths. That makes it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer which were associated with 690,882 and 598,932 deaths in 2020, respectively. Further causes of death in the U.S. last year include unintentional injuries (192,176), strokes (159,050) and chronic respiratory diseases (151,637). Even though Covid-19 was the main factor in mortality climbing between 2019 and 2020, it wasn''t the only one. There were other causes with heart disease climbing 4.8 percent, its largest increase since 2012. Diabetes deaths and fatalities from unintentional injury also climbed by more than 10 percent.