Why Is This Important?

Analysis of mortality by cause is essential for the development of prevention strategies.

Definition

Deaths due to underlying causes of death eligible to be ranked as leading causes of death based on National Center for Health Statistics standards

Data Sources

• Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health
  (https://www.nj.gov/health/vital/)
• Population Estimates, State Data Center, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development
  (https://www.nj.gov/labor/labormarketinformation/demographics/population-household-estimates/)
• Underlying Cause of Death, CDC WONDER On-line Database, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  (https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html)

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

Heart disease and cancer, in order, were the leading causes of death in the US, New Jersey, and all 21 counties in 2021. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US, NJ, and all counties except Cape May where unintentional injury ranked third. These three causes together accounted for 50% of deaths in the US and NJ, and 47%-56% of deaths in each NJ county in 2021. Unintentional injury, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases (CLRD), Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, septicemia, and kidney disease rounded out the remainder of the ten leading causes of death for New Jersey. For each year of 2009-2014, the leading causes of death had been, in order, heart disease, cancer, stroke, CLRD, unintentional injury, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, septicemia, kidney disease, and influenza/pneumonia. In 2015, fueled by the opioid overdose epidemic, unintentional injury replaced CLRD as the fourth leading cause of death. Alzheimer's disease and septicemia overtook diabetes in positions 6 through 8. In 2016, unintentional injury replaced stroke as the third leading cause of death and diabetes switched places with septicemia to become the seventh leading cause of death. In 2018, diabetes switched places with septicemia again. The ten leading causes of death in New Jersey remained the same in 2019 as in 2018. In 2020, COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death resulting in a drop in ranking for every other cause except heart disease. Also in 2020, diabetes once again overtook septicemia to rank eighth. In 2021, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death and cancer regained its second place ranking. The ranking of the other eight leading causes remained the same in 2021 as in 2020. [[a href="contentfile/sharedstatic/LCODtable.pdf" Table of leading causes of death for each year, 2000-2021]] [https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/14434426/ Animated visualization of leading causes of death for each year, 2000-2021] [https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1015315/ Animated visualization of age-adjusted death rates for leading causes of death for each year, 2000-2021]

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis was the ninth leading cause of death in the US in 2021, but was 12th in New Jersey. New Jersey's ninth leading cause of death, septicemia, was 14th in the US in 2021. The other leading causes of death are in the Top 10 in both New Jersey and the US. The age-adjusted death rates in 2021 for New Jersey's ten leading causes of death were lower than those of the US for each cause except septicemia and kidney disease.

More Resources

U.S. Statistics, Data, and Related Documentation are available from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics on these websites: *National Vital Statistics System: [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm] *Mortality Data: [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm] *Datasets and Related Documentation for Mortality Data: [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_methods.htm] *Instruction Manuals: [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/instruction_manuals.htm]