12 Worst States for January Mortality

U.S. public health officials recorded 251,444 deaths from all causes during the first four weeks of 2024, according to provisional mortality reports. The all-cause death count was 4% lower than in the comparable weeks in January 2023, but it was 17% higher than in the first four weeks in January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed up U.S. mortality. In December, the death count was 14% higher than in December 2019. The mortality statistics come from early death data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. This year, the first four weeks ending in January ran from Dec. 31 through Jan. 27. At the state level, the total number of deaths per 100,000 residents ranged from 40 to more than 114, with a median of 78. See the accompanying gallery for a look at 12 states where the total death rate was 88 per 100,000 residents or higher. See the table below for figures for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. What it means: Patients failed to flood into urgent care centers and hospital emergency rooms this January the way they did in January 2023, but it could be that the patients who did seek care were sicker. The numbers: CDC officials use the provisional death statistics in the weekly Flu View reports to determine whether the percentage of deaths caused by pneumonia, influenza or COVID-19 is at or above the pandemic threshold. The epidemic threshold for those three illnesses was about 7%. COVID-19 alone was listed as the cause of death for 7.5% of the deaths reported in January, and COVID, pneumonia and flu combined was listed as the cause of 11% of the deaths. The CDC emphasizes that states send in their death counts on different schedules. It's possible that some of the apparent January surge was the result of deaths that occurred in 2023 being included in the totals for the wrong week. State death rate differences could reflect factors such as the age of each state's population, the underlying health of the residents and public health officials' approach to death reporting as well as fluctuations in pneumonia, influenza and COVID.