US Death Rate Hits All-Time Low

U.S. Death Rate Hits All-Time Low

By Michael Smith, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today August 22, 2007
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Additional Public Health Coverage HYATTSVILLE, Md., Aug. 22 -- The U.S. death rate fell to a historic low in 2004 and the life expectancy at birth hit a record high, according to the National Center for Vital Statistics here.
Final totals for the year show 2,397,615 deaths and an age-adjusted death rate of 800.8 deaths per 100,000 people.
That was 50,673 fewer deaths than in 2003 and represented the largest single-year decline in raw death counts since 1938, when deaths fell by 69,036 from the previous year.
At the same time, life expectancy at birth hit 77.8 years, continuing an increasing trend in the population as a whole and among both blacks and whites, according to the agency, part of the CDC.