COVID was fourth leading cause of death in 2022

COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. during 2022, after being the third leading cause of death in the country for the preceding two years.

According to provisional mortality data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 trailed just heart disease, cancer and unintentional injury as a cause of death in the United States.

The overall death rate in the country fell by 5.3 percent between 2021 and 2022. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was reported as an underlying cause of or contributing factor to 244,986 deaths or 7.5 percent of U.S. deaths last year.

“COVID-19, the third leading cause of death in 2021, fell to fourth place in 2022 because of the large decrease in COVID-19–associated deaths compared with those in 2021,” the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report read. “The number of deaths caused by unintentional injury, largely driven by a high number of drug overdose deaths, remained high in 2022 compared with 2021.”

As these findings are based on provisional data, rates may change in response to additional incoming data. The final data is typically released about 11 months after the end of the previous year.

The report noted that while deaths fell across nearly all demographics, rates still remained relatively high among Black Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives.