New York State Leading Causes of Death

Reports

Leading Causes of All Deaths and Leading Causes of Premature Deaths (Death before age 75)

State and regional reports
These tables present ten years of number of deaths and death rates for the top causes of all deaths and premature deaths in New York State, New York City and New York State excluding New York City, up to the most recent year with available data, by selected characteristics such as sex, age, and race and ethnicity.

County reports
These tables present ten years of number of deaths and death rates for the top causes of all deaths and premature deaths in 62 counties of New York State by sex, up to the most recent year with available data.

Life Expectancy

Life Expectancy by Sex
The table presents ten-year trends of life expectancy at specified ages in New York State up to the most recent year with available data.

Technical Notes

About New York State Leading Causes of Death

Deaths

The causes of death reported in these pages are the underlying causes classified according to the tenth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD, 10^th revision), adopted by New York State in 1999.

Infant (less than 1 year of age) mortality rates published in this report are based on all live births regardless of birth weight or gestation. No attempt was made to account for the viability of the infant at birth. These rates for a specific year are based on deaths and live births that occurred during that year.

When tabulating deaths by place of death, "other institution" is defined as state institution, Veterans Administration facility, hospice, federal institution, health-related facility or home for the aged.

Total deaths is the count of all deaths, including records with race, age or sex “Not Stated".

Population Estimates

Population estimates are developed by the US Census Bureau.

Estimates for 2020 and earlier are from Bridged Race Categories files, developed by the Census Bureau for the National Center for Health Statistics. The 2018 population estimates are used to calculate rates for 2019 and 2020.

Estimates for 2021 and later are from Special Tabulations from the US Census Population and Housing Unit Estimates Program.

See this document for information about why different estimates were used, the differences in these estimates, and why 2018 estimates were used to calculate rates for 2019 and 2020.

Crude Death Rate

The crude death rate is the number of deaths per 100,000 population.

Age-adjusted Death Rate (Direct Method)

Death rate in a group is calculated as a weighted average of the age specific death rate of the same group. The system of weights is the age distribution of a population called the standard population. The percentages were age-adjusted to the U.S. 2000 standard population using appropriate age distributions. The tables do not present rates for the Native American/Alaska Native population due to small population size.

Source

New York State Department of Health - Office of Quality and Patient Safety - Division of Information and Statistics - Bureau of Health Informatics - Vital Statistics Unit ^a

Premature Causes of Death

The term Premature Causes of Death is used as a measure of deaths that occurred prior to individuals reaching the age of 75 years. Seventy-five years of age is the national standard that is used for a comparison basis.

Information, Programs and Prevention Strategies

New York State's Prevention Agenda 2019-2024: New York State's Health Improvement Plan is the blueprint for state and local action to improve the health of New Yorkers in five priority areas and to reduce health disparities for racial, ethnic, disability, socioeconomic and other groups who experience them. Recommended evidence-based programs, policies and practices have been identified for each action plan.

Data Notes

^a Vital Records (Vital Statistics): Vital Event Registration:
New York State consists of two registration areas, New York City and New York State Exclusive of New York City (also referred as Rest of State). New York City (NYC) includes the five counties of Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), New York (Manhattan), Queens and Richmond (Staten Island); the remaining 57 counties comprise New York State Exclusive of New York City. The Bureau of Vital Records, New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), processes data from live birth, death, fetal death and marriage certificates recorded in New York State Exclusive of New York City. Through a cooperative agreement, the New York State Department of Health receives data on live births, deaths, fetal deaths and marriages recorded in New York City from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH) and on live births and deaths recorded outside of New York State to residents of New York State from other states and Canada.

Vital Event indicators for NYC geographical areas reported by NYSDOH and NYCDOHMH may be different since the former may include all NYC residents' events regardless of where they occurred and the latter reports only events to NYC residents that occurred in NYC. The indicators may also differ due to timing and/or completeness of data.

The counts of births and deaths may be influenced by specific reporting issues each year. The specific issues are reported in the NYSDOH Annual Vital Statistics Tables, in the Report Measures section of the Technical Notes.

All the vital statistics presented in this report are based on the county/borough of residence.

About New York State Life Expectancy

Deaths

New York State Public Health Law does not require that death be pronounced by a physician. Unless there is a local law that requires otherwise, anyone may make the pronouncement of death. However, this decision is more likely to fall upon emergency medical technicians, police, fire fighters and other emergency personnel. The pronouncement may even be implied by the decision to call a funeral director or coroner/medical examiner instead of an ambulance. NYS PHL 4140 requires that a death certificate be filed within 72 hours after death, or the finding of the body, by a funeral director or undertaker licensed and currently registered by the New York State Department of Health.

Population Estimates

Population estimates are developed by the US Census Bureau.

Estimates for 2020 and earlier are from Bridged Race Categories files, developed by the Census Bureau for the National Center for Health Statistics. The 2018 population estimates are used to calculate rates for 2019 and 2020.

Estimates for 2021 and later are from Special Tabulations from the US Census Population and Housing Unit Estimates Program.

See this document for information about why different estimates were used, the differences in these estimates, and why 2018 estimates were used to calculate rates for 2019 and 2020.

Life Tables

Life Tables (2014 for example): Table three from the Vital Statistics Annual Reports presents life expectancies for the total, male and female populations of New York State. The life table consists of seven columns. The life expectancy in the tables and charts of the Leading Causes of Death pages are taken from the seventh column of the Vital Statistics pages and are defined as follows: This is the expectation of life at the age at the beginning of the age interval.

Data Source

New York State Department of Health - Office of Quality and Patient Safety - Division of Information and Statistics - Bureau of Health Informatics - Vital Statistics Unit

About Death Grouping Color Chart

Causes of Death and Assigned Color	ICD-10 Coding
HIV/AIDS	ICD-10: B20-B24
Alzheimer's Disease	ICD-10: G30
Arteriosclerosis	ICD-10: I70
Birth Defects	ICD-10: Q00-Q99
Cerebrovascular Disease	ICD-10: I60-I69
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases (CLRD)	ICD-10: J40-J47
COVID-19	ICD-10: U07.1
Diabetes (Diabetes Mellitus)	ICD-10: E10-E14
Gastritis, Enteritis, Colitis, Diverticulitis	ICD-10: K29,K50-K52, K57
Heart Disease	ICD-10: I00-I09,I11,I13,I20-I51
Hypertension with or without Renal Disease	ICD-10: I10,I12
Homicide and Legal Intervention	ICD-10: X85-Y09, Y35, Y87.1, Y89.0
Kidney Disease and Diseases of Urinary Tract	ICD-10: N17-N19, N25-N27, N00-N07
Liver Disease and Cirrhosis	ICD-10: K70, K73-K74
Malignant Neoplasms (Cancer)	ICD-10: C00-C97
Other Diseases of the Circulatory System	ICD-10: I71-I78,I80-I99
Parkinson's Disease	ICD-10: G20, G21
Perinatal Period Condition	ICD-10: P00-P96
Pneumonia and Influenza	ICD-10: J10-J18
Pneumonitis Due to Solids and Liquids	ICD-10: J69
Pregnancy and Childbirth Related	ICD-10: O00-O99
Septicemia	ICD-10: A40-A41
SIDS	ICD-10: R95
Suicide	ICD-10: X60-X84,Y87.0
Unintentional Injury	ICD-10: V01-X59,Y85-Y86