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

Previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have had fatality rates ranging from about 30 to 50 percent. —Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 May 2026

Ebola is one of the world’s deadliest viruses The fatality rate of some types of Ebola can average around 50% to 60%. —Jane Weaver, NBC news, 29 May 2026

Across Africa, road crashes kill about 300,000 people annually, roughly a quarter of the global toll, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, which says the continent has the world’s highest road fatality rate. —ABC News, 27 May 2026

Bradfute says some research suggests the Ebola virus is more effective at blocking this innate immune response than the Bundibugyo virus, which could be one reason the latter has a lower fatality rate. —Claire Maldarelli, Scientific American, 22 May 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