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The headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Credit: John Disney/ALM

Life Health > Life Insurance

CDC Posts Another High U.S. Monthly Death Count

By Allison Bell

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U.S. death counts are still much higher than they were in early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic began pushing up mortality.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 208,928 U.S. deaths for people of all ages from all causes for the four-week period ending Feb. 24, or weeks four through eight of the calendar year.

That very early count is 1.4% higher than the comparable preliminary count for weeks four through eight in 2023 and 10% higher than the comparable count in 2020.

For the first four weeks of 2024, the U.S. death count was 261,496. That was 2.7% higher than the comparable 2023 total and 18% higher than the comparable 2020 total.

What it means: Many life insurers say the death rate for their insureds seems to be getting back to normal, but it looks as if mortality for the general population is still very high.

The history: COVID increased U.S. death counts by about 30% in the first two years of the pandemic, both by killing people directly and by putting pressure on the U.S. health care system.

Before COVID came along, influenza pandemics and other disease outbreaks that increased U.S. death counts by 2% were considered severe.

The deaths: Some of the excess deaths could be due to confirmed COVID-19, and some could be the result of cases of COVID-19 not confirmed by diagnostic testing.

Excess deaths could also be caused by influenza, RSV, pressure on the U.S. health care system, opioid use or other causes.

See the accompanying table for a look at deaths per 100,000 residents by state.

Deaths Population Deaths per 100,000 residents
..Alabama.. ..3,781.. ..5,108,468.. ..74.0..
..Alaska.. ..245.. ..733,406.. ..33.4..
..Arizona.. ..4,846.. ..7,431,344.. ..65.2..
..Arkansas.. ..2,623.. ..3,067,732.. ..85.5..
..California.. ..19,103.. ..38,965,193.. ..49.0..
..Colorado.. ..2,890.. ..5,877,610.. ..49.2..
..Connecticut.. ..2,359.. ..3,617,176.. ..65.2..
..Delaware.. ..689.. ..1,031,890.. ..66.8..
..District.of.Columbia.. ..286.. ..678,972.. ..42.1..
..Florida.. ..16,355.. ..22,610,726.. ..72.3..
..Georgia.. ..5,663.. ..11,029,227.. ..51.3..
..Hawaii.. ..876.. ..1,435,138.. ..61.0..
..Idaho.. ..1,125.. ..1,964,726.. ..57.3..
..Illinois.. ..8,256.. ..12,549,689.. ..65.8..
..Indiana.. ..4,286.. ..6,862,199.. ..62.5..
..Iowa.. ..2,221.. ..3,207,004.. ..69.3..
..Kansas.. ..2,222.. ..2,940,546.. ..75.6..
..Kentucky.. ..3,145.. ..4,526,154.. ..69.5..
..Louisiana.. ..2,634.. ..4,573,749.. ..57.6..
..Maine.. ..1,305.. ..1,395,722.. ..93.5..
..Maryland.. ..3,811.. ..6,180,253.. ..61.7..
..Massachusetts.. ..4,625.. ..7,001,399.. ..66.1..
..Michigan.. ..7,037.. ..10,037,261.. ..70.1..
..Minnesota.. ..3,316.. ..5,737,915.. ..57.8..
..Mississippi.. ..2,346.. ..2,939,690.. ..79.8..
..Missouri.. ..4,267.. ..6,196,156.. ..68.9..
..Montana.. ..767.. ..1,132,812.. ..67.7..
..Nebraska.. ..1,135.. ..1,978,379.. ..57.4..
..Nevada.. ..1,881.. ..3,194,176.. ..58.9..
..New Hampshire.. ..1,025.. ..1,402,054.. ..73.1..
..New Jersey.. ..5,633.. ..9,290,841.. ..60.6..
..New Mexico.. ..1,321.. ..2,114,371.. ..62.5..
..New York.. ..8,102.. ..19,571,216.. ..41.4..
..North Carolina.. ..7,518.. ..10,835,491.. ..69.4..
..North Dakota.. ..455.. ..783,926.. ..58.0..
..Ohio.. ..8,061.. ..11,785,935.. ..68.4..
..Oklahoma.. ..3,056.. ..4,053,824.. ..75.4..
..Oregon.. ..2,542.. ..4,233,358.. ..60.0..
..Pennsylvania.. ..10,015.. ..12,961,683.. ..77.3..
..Rhode Island.. ..796.. ..1,095,962.. ..72.6..
..South Carolina.. ..3,789.. ..5,373,555.. ..70.5..
..South Dakota.. ..444.. ..919,318.. ..48.3..
..Tennessee.. ..5,551.. ..7,126,489.. ..77.9..
..Texas.. ..14,395.. ..30,503,301.. ..47.2..
..Utah.. ..1,548.. ..3,417,734.. ..45.3..
..Vermont.. ..469.. ..647,464.. ..72.4..
..Virginia.. ..5,377.. ..8,715,698.. ..61.7..
..Washington.. ..4,145.. ..7,812,880.. ..53.1..
..West Virginia.. ..1,802.. ..1,770,071.. ..101.8..
..Wisconsin.. ..4,139.. ..5,910,955.. ..70.0..
..Wyoming.. ..398.. ..584,057.. ..68.1..
..TOTAL.. ..204,676.. ..334,914,895.. ....
..MEDIAN.. .... .... ..65.8..

The headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Credit: John Disney/ALM

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

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