COVID-19 drops to 10th leading cause of death in 2023

COVID-19 was the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, down from fourth place in 2022.

Heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries — a category of deaths that has surged in recent years mainly due to drug overdoses — remain the three leading causes of death. Stroke, which had ranked fifth before the pandemic, climbed to fourth.

“In 2020, COVID-19 altered the rankings of leading causes of death substantially. The mortality burden of COVID-19 has decreased since then,” researchers from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics said, in an article published Thursday by the journal JAMA.

For 2020, the first year of the pandemic, COVID-19 was the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., exceeded only by heart disease and cancer. 

COVID deaths have declined since then, largely due to a majority of the surviving population being vaccinated or with immunity from previous infections.

CDC officials had previously said they suspected COVID-19’s steep fall in mortality might even put it below the top 10 for last year, behind suicide deaths, which take longer to report and had ranked as the 10th leading cause before the pandemic. 

Suicide remained in 11th place for 2023, the CDC’s provisional figures now suggest. In 2023, 49,303 suicide deaths were reported, down slightly from 2022.

COVID-19 was blamed as the “underlying” primary cause for 49,928 deaths in 2023 — less than a third of the 186,552 deaths primarily blamed on COVID-19 in 2022. 

When including deaths where COVID-19 was listed as “contributing” to another cause of death, the CDC says at least 76,446 deaths last year were “associated” with the virus. 

“COVID-19 is increasingly a contributing rather than the primary (underlying) cause of death,”  the CDC said in March.

All demographic groups saw COVID-19 death rates fall in 2023 compared to 2022.

Rates of COVID-19 associated deaths remain the worst for Black Americans, compared to other race and ethnicity groups. Among the age groups the agency looked at, rates were still highest for seniors ages 85 and older.

COVID-19 deaths could be on track to fall further this year, after this past winter peaked at levels lower than the previous winter wave.

While some trends suggest this year’s summer COVID-19 wave has reached levels of infections higher than last summer’s peak, the CDC has said that figures tracking severe disease remain better than previous waves.

“While there is a fair amount of COVID circulating, we’re seeing lower levels of emergency rooms and hospitalizations than we’ve seen in the past, which is good,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said Tuesday, at a webinar hosted by the American Medical Association.

Cohen said the agency’s push to promote COVID-19 vaccines this fall will turn its focus mainly to the highest risk groups, like older adults and nursing home residents, as well as the doctors who offer shots.

“We want to make sure we’re continuing to protect each other, particularly those folks who are at highest risk,” Cohen said.