Leading causes of death among women in the United States 2020 and 2021

In the United States, the leading causes of death among women are heart disease and cancer. Heart disease and cancer are similarly the leading causes of death among U.S. men. In 2021, heart disease accounted for 19 percent of all deaths among women in the United States, while cancer accounted for 17.6 percent of deaths. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death among both men and women in 2020 and 2021.

Cancer among women in the U.S.

The most common types of cancer among U.S. women are breast, lung and bronchus, and colon and rectum. In 2024, there was predicted to be around 310,720 new breast cancer cases among women, compared to 118,270 new cases of lung and bronchus cancer. Although breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women in the United States, lung and bronchus cancer causes the highest number of cancer deaths. In 2024, around 59,280 women were expected to die from lung and bronchus cancer, compared to 42,250 from breast cancer.

Breast cancer

Although breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer among women, rates of death have decreased over the past few decades. This decrease is possibly due to early detection, progress in therapy, and increasing awareness of risk factors. In 2019, the death rate due to breast cancer was 19.4 per 100,000 population, compared to a rate of 33.3 per 100,000 in the year 1990. The state with the highest rate of deaths due to breast cancer is Mississippi, while Alaska and Hawaii had the lowest rates. Hawaii is also one of the states with the highest share of women receiving a breast cancer screening in the last two years.