mortality rate

noun

plural mortality rates

: the ratio between deaths and individuals in a specified population and 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 : death rate

an annual mortality rate of 15 deaths per 1000 people

Note: A crude mortality 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 mortality rates are based on narrower categories of individuals or causes of death.

an infant mortality rate of 9 deaths per 1000 live births

mortality rates of lung cancer patients

infectious disease mortality rates

Examples of mortality rate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Canine tetanus can prove fatal, with a 2023 study from Frontiers in Veterinary Science estimating mortality rates of up to 50 percent among those dogs who suffer respiratory complications as a result of the illness. —Jack Beresford, MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2025

If a bird flu virus gains a seasonal flu’s ability to easily infect humans, the result could be a novel pandemic disease—one to which people would have no existing immunity and that, scientists fear, would have an even higher mortality rate than COVID did during its initial emergence. —Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 24 Oct. 2025

The mortality rate for Black women diagnosed with breast cancer is 42 percent higher than that of white women. —Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald, 17 Oct. 2025

According to the Office of Minority Health, with colon cancer, or colorectal cancer, from 2019 to 2023, Black men were found to have a five-year mortality rate that’s 37% higher than the overall population of American men. —Victoria Uwumarogie, Essence, 15 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mortality rate

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

Medical Definition

mortality rate

noun

: the ratio between deaths and individuals in a specified population and 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 : death rate

an annual mortality rate of 15 deaths per 1000 people

Note: A crude mortality 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 mortality rates are based on narrower categories of individuals or causes of death.

mortality rates of liver cancer patients

an infant mortality rate of 9 deaths per 1000 live births