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

Depending on the specific hantavirus virus involved, mortality rates are roughly between 1–15 percent. —ArsTechnica, 8 May 2026

Hantavirus has a very high mortality rate — up to 50 percent in the America, according to the WHO. —Elizabeth Yuko, Rolling Stone, 8 May 2026

Newborns who do not receive it are 81 times more likely to experience vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which has a roughly 1 in 5 mortality rate, according to the CDC. —Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA Today, 8 May 2026

Argentina’s Health Ministry said there were 28 deaths from hantavirus last year, up from an average mortality rate of 15 in the five years before that. —Molly Quell, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2026

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