A death rate is a ratio between mortality and population. This is the most widely used measure for determining the overall health of a community. Unless mortality for a given disease is compared to the affected population, no conclusions can be reached. National death rates are usually computed per 100,000 population. This resulted in a crude death rate of 200.6 per 100,000 population.
Crude rates are simply the ratio of mortality to population for any given year.
When doing any sort of trend analysis in death rates over time, it is necessary to use age-adjusted death rates. Age-adjusting eliminates fluctuations in the data due to age distribution differences in the composition of the population. The base year that has been used by health organizations for some time is 1940. These diseases as a whole represent the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. Coronary heart disease by itself accounts for about 480,000 deaths annually.