US all-cause deaths by race, 1999 to 2020
US all-cause deaths by race stood at 1,096 in 2020, up 16.4% on the previous period.
The rate of deaths from all causes in the United States, per 100,000 population, compared across racial groups. The latest readings (2020): White at 1,095.6, Black or African American at 974, American Indian or Alaska Native at 583.8, Asian or Pacific Islander at 454.2.
How it is measured
Every point is built from death certificates: each US death is certified, assigned an underlying cause under the ICD-10 coding standard, and compiled in CDC WONDER. Rates divide deaths by group population, so groups of different sizes are directly comparable, and small counts are suppressed by CDC privacy rules rather than shown imprecisely. The modern coding standard begins in 1999, which is where this series starts, keeping every year internally comparable.
What the curve shows
All-cause mortality is the denominator of public health: it needs no cause-coding judgment, so it is the cleanest series for spotting shocks like the pandemic years. Rates, not counts, make the group comparison honest; the remaining gaps and their direction of travel are the substance of the chart.
What does per 100,000 mean?
How is the cause of death decided?
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