While heart disease death rates have dropped in all areas for more than 30 years, rates in northeastern states have declined faster than in the Southeast, leaving the southeastern states with relatively high rates today. Lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer deaths in men for several decades, and during that time high rates for black men were concentrated in urban centers, while rates for white men were highest along the Mississippi River and the south Atlantic coast. Now, for white men, the cluster of high rates extends into the Ohio River Valley, and rates for black men are highest in the southeastern states. For women the lung cancer mortality pattern has been similar to that for men, but a cluster of high rates for white women appeared in the Pacific States about 20 years ago. The western cluster of high rates among white females now encompasses the entire Pacific region and portions of the Mountain region, and appears to be limited to older women.
Prostate cancer is primarily a disease of older men.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death. HIV death rates are highest in States on both the East and West Coasts and in nearly every urban area of the United States. Homicide, suicide and motor vehicle injury deaths are also major public health problems with well-defined geographic patterns. For example, homicide rates are high for young black adults in urban areas but for young white men the high rates are in the south and southwestern states. Among whites, suicide rates are highest in the western states and in nonmetropolitan areas throughout the country.