Gators or heart attacks? Here’s the leading causes of death in Florida

Nathaniel Rodriguez
·2 min read

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Death, it’s the one thing that every single person in the world will eventually have to face, hopefully later rather than sooner.

While the way we end up leaving this mortal coil could vary greatly, recently released data from the National Center for Health Statistics narrowed down the top 10 leading causes of death for people in Florida.

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According to finalized data analyzing deaths in 2022, cardiovascular diseases were the most common cause of death in the Sunshine State, leading to 49,992 people passing away from their heart conditions.

This was then followed by “malignant neoplasms,” another term for cancer, which caused 47,037 deaths in Florida. Accidental deaths were the third highest number of death with a total of 17,207 in 2022.

The full chart for this data can be found below.

10 Leading Causes of Death, Florida, 2022

Deaths

Diseases of heart (I00-I09,I11,I13,I20-I51)

49,922

Malignant neoplasms (C00-C97)

47,037

Accidents (unintentional injuries) (V01-X59,Y85-Y86)

17,207

Cerebrovascular diseases (I60-I69)

16,385

COVID-19 (U07.1)

12,169

Chronic lower respiratory diseases (J40-J47)

11,172

Diabetes mellitus (E10-E14)

7,549

Alzheimer disease (G30)

6,397

Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (K70,K73-K74)

3,854

Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (N00-N07,N17-N19,N25-N27)

3,824

In comparison to the data for causes of death across the United States, Florida largely followed the national trend in 2022, although COVID-19 ranked higher on the national data tables.

The national data tables can be read in the document below, with the national number of deaths on page four.

db492-tablesDownload

Finally, comparing provisional data from 2023 showed a major change between 2022 and 2023. COVID deaths in Florida, which ranked at a total of 12,169 in 2023, fell drastically in 2023.

The provisional data, which is still likely to change as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to collect information, showed that the 2023 COVID deaths were at 3,676 so far, nearly 9,000 less than the previous year.

This rang true for the national causes of death as well. The provisional data showed COVID-19 deaths at 49,777 nationwide in in 2023, a massive drop from 186,552 the previous year.

According to a CDC report on Mortality in the United States, life expectancy also rose from 76.4 in 2021 to 77.5 in 2022. However, infant mortality rose by 3.1% in 2022, with 560.4 infant deaths per 100,000 live births.

So keeping all this in mind, it’s far more likely that your own body will take you out before gators, sharks, or any wild animal will.

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