Leading death causes in the U.S.

On May 20, 2010, JiaQuan Xu MD and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a list of leading death causes for the year 2007 in the Vol 58, Number 19 issue of the National Vital Statistics Reports.

The researchers found the following:

(Data were recorded in 2007 for the U.S. population and published in May 2010)

Number of deaths: 2,423,712

Death rate: 803.6 deaths per 100,000 population

Life expectancy: 77.9 years

Infant Mortality rate: 6.75 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 616,067

Cancer: 562,875

Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952

Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924

Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706

Alzheimer's disease: 74,632

Diabetes: 71,382

Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717

Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 46,448

Septicemia: 34,828

(cited from cdc)

Note:

According to media reports, the U.S. infant mortality rate (6.75 deaths per 1,000 live births) is much higher than those found in many other industrialized countries.  According to CIA World Factbook cited at Wikipedia, the U.S. is ranked No. 46 for the infant mortality rate among 224 countries and regions.

Deaths from accidents according to some other studies can be much higher.  Medical errors alone, according to a study led by healthgrades.com, resulted in as many as 195,000 likely preventable deaths for any of years 2000, 2001 and 2002.