fatality rate

noun

plural fatality rates

: the number of deaths from a specific cause

Last year, South Carolina had the nation's third-highest highway fatality rate, with 1,064 people killed in wrecks on the state's roads.

—Joseph S. Stroud

McGuire is a practitioner of what he calls the king of all extreme sports. BASE—an acronym for building, antenna, span (bridge) and earth (cliffs)—jumping has one of the sporting world's highest fatality rates: in its 18-year history, 46 participants have been killed.

—Karl Taro Greenfield

specifically : case fatality rate

Dysentery, in which fatality rates in untreated cases range as high as 50 percent, is especially dangerous to children.

—James C. Riley

Examples of fatality rate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These conditions had much higher fatality rates in 1776 because Americans had no antibiotics, few vaccines, no understanding of germ theory, no sterile surgical techniques and limited access to hospitals, experts note. — Melissa Rudy, FOXNews.com, 3 July 2026

As in past Ebola outbreaks in the region, the youngest face the highest fatality rates, with children and adolescents almost twice as likely to die from the disease as adults. — Maryanne Murray Buechner, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026

Because of the possible lower case fatality rate associated with this Ebola species, it’s anticipated that the clinical trial will need to be larger than might otherwise have been necessary, said Vasee Moorthy, acting lead of WHO’s R&D Blueprint group. — Helen Branswell, STAT, 24 June 2026

Dangerous by Design ranks all 50 states and the largest 101 metro areas by pedestrian fatality rates. — Dj Simmons june 23, Charlotte Observer, 23 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1866, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fatality rate

• borosilicate
• decontaminate
• deoxycholate
• deteriorate
• differentiate
• diisocyanate
• dinoflagellate
• excommunicate
• incapacitate
• insubordinate
• intercorporate
• interpenetrate

Medical Definition

fatality rate

noun

: the number of deaths from a specific cause

… the inclusion of air bags and other design improvements in vehicles, the use of seat belts and even the increasing maturity of the driving population have combined to lower the fatality rate on U. S. highways by 29 percent since 1987.

—Stefan Thomke et al., Scientific American

specifically : case fatality rate

Dysentery, in which fatality rates in untreated cases range as high as 50 percent, is especially dangerous to children.

—James C. Riley, The American Historical Review