After '04 decline, deaths rise; life expectancy inches higher

ATLANTA - The number of deaths in the United States rose in 2005 after a sharp decline the year earlier, a reversal that suggests the 2004 numbers were a fluke. Cancer deaths were also up.

However, the age-adjusted rate for all deaths in 2005 fell to an all-time low of 799 per 100,000 population, down from 801 per 100,000 in 2004. The rate has been in a general decline for more than 50 years, according to government data.

U.S. life expectancy inched up to 77.9 from the previous record, 77.8, recorded for 2004. In 1995, the life expectancy was 75.8, and 69.6 in 1955.

Health officials said they believed the drop in deaths seen earlier may have been due to 2004's unusually mild flu season. Deaths from flu and lower respiratory disease jumped in 2005.

The new mortality data were released yesterday in a report by the National Center for Health Statistics. It was a preliminary report, based on about 99 percent of the death records reported in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for 2005.

Last year, statistics from 2004 showed U.S. deaths fell to 2,397,615, a decline of about 50,000 from 2003. It was the largest drop in deaths in nearly 70 years. Some experts saw it as a sign of the triumph of modern medicine.

But the preliminary 2005 death count was up more than 50,000, almost back to the 2003 level.

"The best way to look at this is in five-year groupings, because every once in a while you are going to have an aberration," said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University health-policy professor.

Heart disease and stroke - the No. 1 and No. 3 killers - killed fewer people in 2005 than 2004. But the No. 2 cause of death, cancer, rose to about 559,000 from 554,000, according to the report. The death rates for heart disease, stroke and cancer all declined.

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