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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

But the current study, to the authors’ knowledge, is the first to use mortality data to employ the life-table method: a statistical technique for analyzing death rates and the probabilities of survival or death at different age intervals. —

Kristen Rogers, CNN, 23 Jan. 2025 Despite overall declines in mortality, the report revealed that death rates are rising for cancers of the oral cavity, pancreas, uterine corpus and liver (for females). —

Melissa Rudy, Fox News, 16 Jan. 2025 The Everytown report estimated based on CDC data that if every state had the gun death rates of those with the strongest gun laws, nearly 300,000 lives could be saved over the next decade. —

N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY, 15 Jan. 2025 States with the weakest laws, for example Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico have the highest gun violence death rates. —

John Mac Ghlionn, Newsweek, 14 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for death rate

Word History

First Known Use

1849, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of death rate was in 1849

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Death rate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/death%20rate. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.

Copy Citation

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

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

Last Updated: 13 Feb 2025 - Updated example sentences

Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the Day

non sequitur

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

death rate

noun

Examples of death rate in a Sentence

Word History

Dictionary Entries Near death rate

Cite this Entry

Kids Definition