Motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of death for children, while accidental poisoning, cancer and heart attack were the leading causes of death for adults, according to a report from USAFacts, a nonprofit organization that conducts data analysis.
The "America in Facts 2024" report, published in July, used CDC data to calculate the leading causes of death by age from 2020 to 2021. Heart disease and cancer have been the leading causes of death since 1950. COVID-19 became one of the leading causes of death at the onset of the pandemic but has since fallen to the fourth leading cause of death.
The top five leading causes of death account for 58% of all deaths in 2022. Twenty-one percent of all deaths were from heart disease, 19% were from cancer and 7% were from accidents in 2022.
Here are the leading causes of death for each age group between 2021 and 2022:
1 to 17 years old
Motor vehicle accidents: 15%
Other accidents: 11%
Cancer: 9%
Accidental poisoning: 4%
Heart disease: 3%
18 to 44 years old
Accidental poisoning: 25%
Motor vehicle accidents: 10%
Heart disease: 8%
Cancer: 7%
Other accidents: 3%
45 to 64 years old
Cancer: 23%
Heart disease: 20%
Accidental poisoning: 7%
Other accidents: 2%
Motor vehicle accidents: 2%
65 and older
Heart disease: 23%
Cancer: 19%
Other accidents: 2%
Accidental poisoning: 0%
Motor vehicle accidents: 0%