A sharp decline in drug overdose fatalities and a reduced toll from COVID-19 pushed the overall U.S. death rate to its lowest point on record last year, federal data shows.
The provisional figures, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, reveal that the national death rate fell 4.6 percent in 2025. The rate dropped to 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people, down from 722.1 in 2024, with declines recorded across every age group and nearly all tracked demographic groups, The Wall Street Journal reported.
