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United States > U.S. Statistics > Mortality

10 Leading Causes of Death in the U.S., 2006

Leading causes of death differ somewhat by age, sex, and race. In 2006, as in previous years, accidents were the leading cause of death for those under 34 years, while in older age groups, chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease were the leading causes. The top two causes for males and females—heart disease and cancer—are exactly the same. However, suicide ranked 8th for males but was not ranked among the ten leading causes for females.

Rank	Causes of death	All persons	Causes of death	Male	Causes of death	Female
	All causes	2,426,264	All causes	1,201,942	All causes	1,224,322
1.	Diseases of heart	631,636	Diseases of heart	315,706	Diseases of heart	315,930
2.	Malignant neoplasms (cancer)	559,888	Malignant neoplasms (cancer)	290,069	Malignant neoplasms (cancer)	269,819
3.	Cerebrovascular diseases	137,119	Cerebrovascular diseases	54,524	Cerebrovascular diseases	82,595
4.	Chronic lower respiratory diseases	124,583	Chronic lower respiratory diseases	59,260	Chronic lower respiratory diseases	65,323
5.	Unintentional injuries	121,599	Unintentional injuries	78,941	Unintentional injuries	42,658
6.	Diabetes mellitus	72,449	Diabetes mellitus	36,006	Diabetes mellitus	36,443
7.	Alzheimer's disease	72,432	Alzheimer's disease	21,151	Alzheimer's disease	51,281
8.	Influenza and pneumonia	56,326	Influenza and pneumonia	25,650	Influenza and pneumonia	30,676
9.	Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis	45,344	Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis	22,094	Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis	23,250
10.	Septicemia	34,234	Septicemia	15,522	Septicemia	18,712

Source: U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2009.

Deaths by Major Causes, 1960–2004

Mortality

10 Leading Causes of Death in the U.S., 2004

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