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1992.01.07 :  Mortality Statistics

Contact:  Sandra Smith  (301) 436-7135/7551  
January 7, 1992

        Death rates were down for 10 of the 15 leading causes of
death in 1989, and death rates for most age groups also declined,
according to final mortality statistics for the United States
released today by HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.  
        The age-adjusted death rate, which eliminates the effect of
the aging of the population, reached a record low of 523.0 per
100,000 population in 1989.  And life expectancy at birth reached
a record high of 75.3 years, according to the data compiled by the
Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health
Statistics.
        However, death rates for those 25-44 years of age were up,
due primarily to a 31 percent increase in the death rate for AIDS
and a slight increase in the homicide rate.  The death rates were
up 2 percent for those 25-34 and up 1 percent for those 35-44 in
1989, continuing the trend observed over the past few years of
rising death rates for these age groups. 
        "Overall, we continue to see improvement in those areas
which account for the greatest proportion of mortality in our
country," Secretary Sullivan said in releasing the data from the
National Center for Health Statistics.  "But at the same time, we
are feeling the growing impact of AIDS and of violence, and they
are hitting hardest at people in their most productive years."
        There were 2,150,466 deaths in 1989, down from the record
high of 2,167,999 in 1988.  AIDS accounted for 22,082 deaths;
almost three-fourths of these occurred in persons 25-44 years of
age.   
        "The success our nation has shown in dealing with the major
causes of death cannot overshadow the need to conquer those
diseases that plague our young adults," said CDC Director
William L. Roper, M.D.  "HIV infection has meant illness and death
for some of the youngest and brightest, and the violence in our
streets and in our homes is both a malignant disease and a public
health concern of the greatest magnitude," he said.  
        Declines in age-adjusted death rates between 1988 and 1989
for 10 of the 15 leading causes of death were led by reductions for
atherosclerosis, septicemia and kidney disease.  Heart disease, the
leading cause of death in the United States, and stroke, the third
leading cause of death, continued their long-term declines.  
        For the third consecutive year, the suicide rate declined
slightly.  Mortality from accidents, including motor vehicle
accidents, pneumonia and influenza, chronic liver disease and
cirrhosis, and certain conditions arising in the perinatal period
also declined between 1988 and 1989.  
        For all ages combined, death rates were up sharply for HIV
infection, diabetes and homicide.  Mortality from HIV infection,
the 11th leading cause of death, increased by 32 percent; from
diabetes, the seventh leading cause of death, by 14 percent; and
from homicide, the 10th leading cause of death, by 4 percent.  
        The age-adjusted death rate for cancer, the second leading
cause of death, increased slightly.  There was no change in the
death rate for the fifth leading cause of death, chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, from 1988 to 1989.  Heart disease,
cancer, stroke and accidents--the first four leading causes of
death--accounted for almost three out of four deaths in 1989.

        For life expectancy at birth, the difference between males
and females has narrowed since the late 1970s.  However, women are
still expected to outlive men by an average of 6.8 years, according
to Dr. Manning Feinleib, director of the National Center for Health
Statistics, who cited an age-adjusted death rate for males about 70
percent higher than for females for all causes of death combined. 

        For males, rates were also higher for each of the 15
leading causes of death.  The greatest sex differential was for HIV
infection, where the rate for males was almost nine times that for
females.  

        Life expectancy for the white population increased in 1989;
for the black population overall it remained unchanged from the
previous year, resulting in a widening gap in life expectancy
between the black and white populations.  (Provisional data had
previously indicated a slight increase in black life expectancy for
1989.) 

        Overall, black Americans had age-adjusted death rates that
exceeded those of the white population by about 60 percent.  Rates
were also higher for most of the leading causes of death,
particularly homicide for which the rate for the black population
was nearly seven times that for the white population.  The black
population had lower rates than the white population for chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease and suicide.

        There were also important differences in the rankings of
leading causes of death between the Hispanic and non-Hispanic white
populations.  For the Hispanic population, homicide was the fifth
leading cause of death, and HIV infection sixth; neither of these
causes were among the 10 leading causes for the non-Hispanic white
population.  This difference reflects in part the younger age
composition of the Hispanic population.  Mortality data on the
Hispanic population for 1989 is for a reporting area of 44 states
and the District of Columbia, which includes about 97 percent of
the Hispanic population in the United States.  

        The infant mortality rate of 9.8 infant deaths per 1,000
live births in 1989--down from 10.0 in 1988--was a record low.  The
rate declined for the white population, but there was essentially
no change in the rate between 1988 and 1989 for the black
population.  

        "The downward trend in black infant mortality has slowed in
recent years," said Dr. Marian MacDorman, NCHS mortality analyst,
whose research has focused on trends in infant mortality.  "In 1989
the black infant mortality rate remained at more than twice that
for the white population and the ratio of black to white infant
mortality rates has increased since the early 1970s," she said.  

        More than 40 percent of the difference between black and
white infant mortality rates is accounted for by significantly
higher rates for black infants from three causes of infant death--
disorders relating to short gestation and unspecified low
birthweight, sudden infant death syndrome, and respiratory distress
syndrome.  

        Data in this report are provided to the National Center for
Health Statistics, CDC, through the Vital Statistics Cooperative
Program.  CDC is one of the eight Public Health Service agencies
within HHS.  Copies of the "Advance Report of Final Mortality
Statistics, 1989," are available from the National Center for
Health Statistics, Room 1064, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, Md,
20782.  
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