COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking

This brief for the KFF-Peterson Health System Tracker examines how deaths from COVID-19 rank among other leading causes of death in the U.S. We find that COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death in January 2022. We also find that in December, COVID-19 was the number 1 cause of death for people age 45-54 and in the top 7 leading causes of death for other age groups, aside from children ages 4 and younger. (Issue Brief)