death rate

noun

plural death rates

: the ratio between deaths and individuals in a specified population during a particular time period : the incidence of deaths in a given population during a defined time period (such as one year) that is typically expressed per 1000 or 100,000 individuals : mortality rate

an annual death rate of 15 deaths per 1000 people

Note: A crude death rate does not distinguish between specific causes of death or groups of individuals and measures the incidence of all deaths in a population during a given time period. More specific death rates are based on narrower categories of individuals or causes of death.

an infant death rate of 9 deaths per 1000 live births

Ebola is infamous for being highly contagious and causing death rates as high as 90 percent in some human outbreaks.

—Brendan Borrell

Examples of death rate in a Sentence

There was a decline in the country's death rate after its health care improved.

Lung cancer death rates are up.

The death rate from accidents is rising.

Recent Examples on the Web

Florida boasts one of the worst COVID death rates in the nation, more than 391 deaths per 100,000 population. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2023

Senate Bill 519, introduced by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, in response to the escalating death rate in San Diego County jails, would create the position of director of in-custody review inside the Board of State and Community Corrections, the panel that oversees county jails. —Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Sep. 2023

Counties with the highest average doses of legal pain pills per person from 2006 to 2013 suffered the highest death rates in the country over the subsequent six years. —David Ovalle, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Sep. 2023

At the same time, maternal death rates have worsened in higher income countries like the United States. —Jennifer Fields, Fortune Well, 12 Sep. 2023

The 2021 death rate among Black Americans was 31.3 per 100,000 population, compared with 24.6 among whites and 14.1 among Hispanics. —Sharon Grigsby, Dallas News, 11 Sep. 2023

At the same time, the death rate is expected to rise as the baby boomer generation ages. —Corina Knoll, New York Times, 27 Aug. 2023

Black children — who have long suffered the highest gun death rates among racial and ethnic groups — saw the greatest increase in death rate, the report said, noting thatthe data showed racial and socioeconomic disparities had increased. —Ellen Francis, Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2023

In February 2022, the California state auditor issued a scathing report on the high death rate inside San Diego County jails. —Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Sep. 2023

See More

Word History

First Known Use

1849, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

death rate

noun

: the proportion of deaths in a population that is often expressed as the number of individuals that die in a year per thousand individuals in the population at the beginning of the year

Medical Definition

death rate

noun

: the ratio between deaths and individuals in a specified population and time period : the incidence of deaths in a given population during a defined time period (as one year) that is typically expressed per 1000 or 100,000 individuals : mortality rate

an annual death rate of 715 deaths per 100,000 individuals

Note: A crude death rate does not distinguish between specific causes of death or groups of individuals and measures the incidence of all deaths in a population during a given time period. More specific death rates are based on narrower categories of individuals or causes of death.

an infant death rate of 9 deaths per 1000 live births

The pravastatin group had a 24% lower death rate than the placebo group.

—Harvard Health Letter

Ebola is infamous for being highly contagious and causing death rates as high as 90 percent in some human outbreaks.

—Brendan Borrell, Scientific American