On August 19, 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System released their new National Vital Statistics Report addressing death rates, causes of death, life expectancy, and infant mortality for 2007. The CDC's comprehensive report is organized by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin, and the data is compared to 2006. In brief, the death rate across the United States has slightly decreased from 2006 (776.5 per 100,000) to 2007 (760.3 per 100,000). During that same time (from 2006 to 2007), life expectancy rose by 0.2 years, to 77.9 years.
Among the report's highlights, C. Paddock (2009) highlighted the following from the CDC's report:
- For the first time, life expectancy for black males reached 70 years.
- The estimated number of deaths across the United States (2,423,995) in 2007 was lower than the 2006 total by 2,269 deaths.
- The rate of death from HIV/AIDS fell by 10 per cent to an estimated 11,061 in 2007, the biggest one-year decline since 1998. HIV is the sixth leading cause of death among 25 to 44-year olds.
- Life expectancy by gender has hit record highs: 75.3 years for men and 80.4 years for women.
- The two leading causes of death in 2007 were heart disease and cancer, accounting for 48.5 percent of all deaths.
- The death rate for babies under 1 year of age (infants) has also gone up from 6.69 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006 to 6.77 in 2007. The most common reason for babies dying under the age of 1 year in 2007 was birth defects (congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities), followed by disorders linked to preterm birth and low birth weight.
- SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome, often referred to as "cot death") was the third leading cause of infant death in 2007.
For More Information, References and Recommendations:
Paddock, C. (retrieved from the Internet August 20, 2009). Medical News Today: US Life Expectancy Reaches All Time High
Xu J, Kochanek K, Tejada-Vera B. "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2007 ." National Vital Statistics Reports, (58)1, August 19, 2009.