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

The death rates on the job by race are in stark contrast with the racial breakdown of the American workforce. —Char Adams, NBC News, 25 Apr. 2024

Primary election no-shows in California are a warning to Biden April 1, 2024 Now, however, death rates are back to normal. —George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2024

Breast cancer death rates have been decreasing, but the report noted this has not been equitable across all groups. —Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 9 Apr. 2024

Smith’s birthplace of West Virginia, home to the nation’s highest opioid death rate, has enforced a moratorium on new methadone clinics since 2007. —Lev Facher, STAT, 26 Mar. 2024

The death rate among children ages 1 to 4 jumped 12% between 2021 and 2022, while the death rate for children 5 to 14 increased 7% year-over-year, according to the latest CDC data. —Deidre McPhillips, CNN, 21 Mar. 2024

In ancient Egypt, it’s believed that the average age at death was as low as 19, mainly due to high infant death rates. —Sean Mowbray, Discover Magazine, 7 Mar. 2024

Email address: The study concluded that maternal death rates put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been substantially inflated by misclassified data. —Robin Fields, ProPublica, 5 Apr. 2024

International migration, birth rates and death rates also affect a state's population growth. —USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2024

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