COVID no longer a leading cause,Death rate drops to lowest level since 2020.

According to a federal report released Wednesday, the U.S. death rate fell 3.8% in 2024, with COVID-19 no longer among the top ten causes of death.

Using provisional death certificate data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics estimated that 3,072,039 people 

died in the United States last year, equivalent to 722 deaths per 100,000 people, and 750.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023. The report's authors noted that this

was the lowest death rate since 2020.

And for the first time since 2020, COVID-19 was not one of the 10 leading causes of death. 

The top three causes of death were heart disease with 683,037 deaths, cancer with 619,812 and unintentional injury with 196,488. The other leading causes were stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney disease, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and suicide.

Despite the overall death rate decline, deaths for both heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes, increased from 2023. 

Broken down by demographics, death rates were highest for males, older adults and Black people, the data shows.

The findings are limited due to the use of provisional data, but the estimates still give "researchers and policymakers an early signal about shifts in mortality trends," the authors said.

While heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., a survey from the Cleveland Clinic earlier this year found many Americans are unaware of the risk factors, including things like tobacco use

and air pollution. And the risk doesn't appear to be slowing anytime soon — a 2024 report from the American Heart Association projected more than six in 10 U.S. adults, about 61%, will have some type

of cardiovascular disease by 2050.