--- title: The U.S. Death Rate Rose During the COVID-19 Pandemic description: The U.S. death rate rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus became the third-most-common cause of death in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/5951512/2020-us-mortality-numbers/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-03-31T15:49:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:49:07.372Z article:section: Health og:title: The U.S. Death Rate Rose Significantly During the COVID-19 Pandemic og:description: The virus was the third-highest cause of death og:url: https://time.com/5951512/2020-us-mortality-numbers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt974963fb818c7d34/698a185f929fad577bbf737f/covid-19-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: COVID Memorial in Washington D.C. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S. Death Rate Rose Significantly During the COVID-19 Pandemic twitter:description: The virus was the third-highest cause of death twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt974963fb818c7d34/698a185f929fad577bbf737f/covid-19-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The U.S. Death Rate Rose Significantly During the COVID-19 Pandemic  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 31, 2021 3:49 PM UTC  Flags planted to remember some of the thousands of Americans who died of COVID-19 in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, 2020. Flags planted to remember some of the thousands of Americans who died of COVID-19 in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, 2020.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 31, 2021 3:49 PM UTC COVID-19 was the third-most-common cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, contributing to more than 375,000 deaths, and a 16% increase in the national death rate, according to [provisional data](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7014e1.htm?s%5Fcid=mm7014e1%5Fw) published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All told, more than 3.3 million people in the U.S. died in 2020, for a rate of about 829 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s up from about 715 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic is a clear culprit. The weeks ending April 11 and December 26 were the deadliest for the U.S. last year, coinciding with [two major COVID-19 surges](https://time.com/5913620/covid-third-wave/). The virus was listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death for more than 377,000 people in the U.S. in 2020—which is likely an underestimate, if anything, since testing [was hard to come by](https://time.com/5878063/covid-19-testing-united-states/) in the spring of 2020\. Only heart disease and cancer killed more Americans in 2020\. Meanwhile, suicide was pushed out of the top 10 causes of death; unintentional injury, stroke, lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, influenza/pneumonia and kidney disease rounded out the list. Logically enough, death rates were highest among adults 85 or older and [lowest among kids](https://time.com/5946846/unvaccinated-kids-covid-19/) ages five to 14\. While that was true across causes of death, COVID-19 certainly contributed to that gap. The [CDC estimates](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html) that COVID-19 death rates are 7,900 times higher among adults older than 85 than they are among kids ages 5 to 17\. Death rates were also higher among men than women, again [consistent with COVID-19 trends](https://time.com/5829202/covid-19-gender-differences/). Death rates varied widely across racial and ethnic groups, too. Overall death rates were highest among Black and American Indian/Alaska Native people, while COVID-19 death rates [were highest](https://time.com/5855756/covid-19-racial-injustice-health/) among American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic people. Though these figures are provisional and may change somewhat as the CDC’s data are finalized, they paint a stark picture. Last year marks the first since 2017 that the national death rate rose. It’s too soon to say whether the trend will continue in 2021, but COVID-19 remains a major cause of death both in the U.S. and globally. More than 550,000 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the U.S. since the pandemic began, and the virus continues to kill hundreds of people in the U.S. each day. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5951512/2020-us-mortality-numbers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5951512/2020-us-mortality-numbers/"},"headline":"The U.S. Death Rate Rose Significantly During the COVID-19 Pandemic","datePublished":"2021-03-31T15:49:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:49:07.372Z","description":"The U.S. death rate rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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