Leading causes of death in Puerto Rico by year, sex, and rank: 2020-2023

These charts describe the ranking of leading causes of death in Puerto Rico from 2020 through the most recent available year. They show the number of deaths, age-adjusted death rates, percent of total deaths, and overall ranking. Data are presented by sex and year of death.

Technical Notes

Nature and Sources of Data

Data are based on information from the National Vital Statistics System mortality (NVSS-M) file which is comprised of all death certificates filed in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. These data are processed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Data for Puerto Rico are available through National Vital Statistics System, mortality data file and CDC WONDER, which provides an easy-to-use, menu-driven system for public access.

Ranking of Causes of Death

The procedures used by NCHS to rank causes of death are consistent with the recommendations of the 1951 Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics (1). Causes are ranked according to the number of deaths attributed to rankable causes, which are a standard set of causes of death defined by NCHS to ensure consistency and comparability in reporting.

Cause of Death

Cause-of-death data are based on the underlying cause of death, classified according to the International Classification of Diseases,10th Revision (2).

Age-Adjusted Death Rate

Age-adjusted rates were computed by applying the age-specific death rates to the U.S. standard population (3). Populations estimates used to compute rates for Puerto Rico, are based on data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Database (4).

References:

National Office of Vital Statistics. Leading causes of death: United States and each state, 1949. Vital statistics— Special reports, national summaries; vol 36 no 20. 195.
World Health Organization. International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th revision (ICD–10). 2008 ed. 2009.
Anderson RN, Rosenberg HM. Age standardization of death rates: Implementation of the year 2000 standard. Natl Vital Stat Rep. 1998 Oct 7;47(3):1–17. PMID: 9796247
U.S. Census Bureau. Puerto Rico population estimates by single years of age and sex, 2020,2021, 2020, 2023.

Suggested citation: Tejada-Vera B., Bastian B. Leading causes of death in Puerto Rico by year, sex and rank: 2020-2023. National Center for Health Statistics, 2024.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc/z20250305022