The overall U.S. death rate continued to climb in 2021, and the increase in mortality was especially hard on people ages 35 through 44, according to final mortality figures for the year from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC recorded 124,939 deaths of people in the 35-44 age group in 2021.
The actual number of deaths of people in that age group was 19.6% higher than in 2020, and 50.6% higher than the total for 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
For the entire U.S. population, the CDC recorded 3.46 million deaths in 2021. That was up 2.4% from the 2020 total, and up 21.5% from the 2019 total.
What It Means
Financial professionals who are helping working-age clients plan for mortality and longevity risk can not assume that pandemic-related death is just a problem for older people.
Since the pandemic started, the increase in the number of deaths of U.S. residents ages 65 and older has been larger. But the percentage increase in the death rate has been much bigger for U.S. residents ages 25 through 64 than for older U.S. residents.
The Big Picture
The total 2021 U.S. age-adjusted death rate was 879.7 deaths per 100,000 people. That compares with a death rate of 835.4 in 2020, and a death rate of 715.2 in 2019.
Overall life expectancy at birth fell to 76.4 years, from 77 years in 2020, and from 78.8 years in 2019.
For a look at how death rates for U.S. residents in different age groups changed from 2019 through 2021, see the table below.
