Excess US deaths before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic

JAMA Health Forum

2025-05-23

(Press-News.org) About The Study: Between 1980 and 2023, the total number of excess U.S. deaths reached an estimated 14.7 million. Although excess deaths per year peaked in 2021, there were still more than 1.5 million during 2022 to 2023. In 2023, excess death rates remained substantially higher than pre-pandemic rates. The rising trend from 1980 to 2019 appears to have continued during and after the pandemic, likely reflecting pre-pandemic causes of death, including drug overdose, firearm injury, and cardiometabolic disease. These deaths highlight the continued consequences of U.S. health system inadequacies, economic inequality, and social and political determinants of health.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jacob Bor, SD, email jbor@bu.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2025.1118)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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About JAMA Health Forum: JAMA Health Forum is an international, peer-reviewed, online, open access journal that addresses health policy and strategies affecting medicine, health and health care. The journal publishes original research, evidence-based reports and opinion about national and global health policy; innovative approaches to health care delivery; and health care economics, access, quality, safety, equity and reform. Its distribution will be solely digital and all content will be freely available for anyone to read.

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Excess US deaths before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic

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