America's Death Rate Just Hit Its Lowest Point in More Than a Century

A Historic Milestone in American Health

New mortality data from the federal government suggests that life expectancy probably hit another record high in 2025, as the U.S. recorded approximately 689 deaths for every 100,000 people — the lowest rate in more than a century of tracking. The overall death rate fell 4.6% last year, dropping to 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people, down from 722.1 in 2024, with declines recorded across every age group and nearly every demographic group.

The age-adjusted rate has fallen 22% since 2021, landing about 4% lower than it was just before the pandemic in 2019. That is a remarkable turnaround for a country still absorbing the aftershocks of COVID-19, and it signals something genuinely encouraging: Americans, on the whole, are living longer and dying less frequently than at any point in recorded U.S. history.

The Overdose Decline Is Driving the Trend

The main driver of the record low was a continued drop in drug overdose deaths, according to a CDC health scientist. Drug overdose deaths fell 14% from 2024, with declines in opioid deaths as well as deaths involving cocaine and psychostimulants like methamphetamine. Drug overdose deaths have now decreased for three consecutive years.

Overdose deaths are still high — about 70,000 people died from an overdose in 2025, preliminary CDC data shows — but experts say that sharp declines probably played a large role in bringing the age-adjusted death rate down. The reason younger Americans matter so much to this equation is straightforward: life expectancy is affected more by what's happening at younger age groups, and as dramatic declines in drug overdose among younger adults continue, that will have a more measurable impact on the overall life expectancy of the population, according to Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau.

A Mixed Picture Beneath the Headlines

The leading causes of death remained heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injuries, with both heart disease and cancer deaths rising in 2025 compared to the year prior. Stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases rounded out the top five. Influenza and pneumonia, which had been the 11th leading cause of death in 2024, rose to eighth place last year — a shift a CDC spokesperson described as a return to pre-pandemic levels.

The only demographic groups that did not see death rate decreases were Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, other Pacific Islanders, and Asian people. Death rates among Black and American Indian people are more than twice as high as they are for Asian people, the new CDC report shows. Declines in overdose deaths are having an impact, but deaths from firearms, suicide, alcohol-related disease, diabetes, and heart disease remain serious challenges for many communities — a reminder that the headline number, while historic, does not tell the whole story.

Progress, With Eyes Open

Advances in public health and medicine have helped drive death rates down in the U.S. and other wealthy nations over the past century, but the mortality rate flatlined around 2010 in the U.S., even as it continued to decrease in other peer nations. The recent rebound is real, but researchers caution against declaring victory. "The systemic issues affecting the health of Americans are still claiming lives," said Steven Woolf, a health researcher who has studied U.S. mortality trends.

Life expectancy is essentially a population-level snapshot of death rates in a given year. The mortality data is provisional and subject to change as the full set of death records are processed — but a record-low death rate would most likely suggest a record-high life expectancy, demographic experts say. If the trend holds, 2025 may be remembered as the year the United States turned a corner — not just from the pandemic, but from a decade and a half of stagnation in American longevity.