New mortality data from the federal government suggests that life expectancy probably hit another record high in 2025, as death rates have continued to fall since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There were about 689 deaths for every 100,000 people in the US in 2025, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the lowest rate recorded in more than a century of tracking. The age-adjusted rate has fallen 22% since 2021, landing about 4% lower than it was just before the pandemic in 2019.
Life expectancy is essentially a population-level snapshot of death rates in a given year. This calculation isn’t included in the new report — the mortality data is provisional and subject to change as the full set of death records are processed — but a record-low death rate would most likely suggest a record-high life expectancy, demographic experts say.
The top causes of death in the US in 2025 followed longstanding patterns: Heart disease led with nearly 695,000 deaths, followed by cancer with nearly 623,000 deaths.
Unintentional injuries, which includes drug overdoses, were the third leading cause of death. Overdose deaths are still high — about 70,000 people died from an overdose in 2025, preliminary CDC data shows — but experts say that sharp declines probably played a large role in bringing the age-adjusted death rate down in the US.
