Deaths and Death Rates
Los Angeles County

Also see for L.A. County:
-- Leading Causes of Death/Premature Death by Year
-- Leading Causes of Death and Premature Death by Race/Ethnicity
-- Life Expectancy by Race in Los Angeles County

Although we do not yet have finalized numbers for all causes of death in Los Angeles County in 2020, we do know that, by Dec. 31, 2020, more than 10,300 COVID-19-related deaths were recorded in the county. This may likely rank COVID-19 as Los Angeles County's second or third leading cause of death in 2020, just behind coronary heart disease and, perhaps, cancer. COVID-19 deaths also appeared to significantly contribute to the apparent spike in deaths for 2020.

• Number of Deaths & Death Rates (By Individual Year), 1970-2019
• Causes of Death & Death Rates, 2016-2018
• Map of Leading Premature Causes of Death by Los Angeles County Region

Annual Number of Deaths & Death Rates
Los Angeles County & California, 1970-2020

* Death rates are per 100,000 population (based upon U.S. Census or California Department of Finance population estimates for that year).
Gross death rates are the result of dividing a total population by the number of deaths. This does not account mortality-rate differences between specific age groups.
Age-adjusted rates do account for these differences and are considered a more accurate reflection of a population's overall mortality rate.

† Preliminary data from the California Dept. of Public Health. May be revised with additional data, review and verification.

N/A - Crude and/or adjusted age rate calculations were not available for these years.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (after 1998, except as noted); California Dept. of Public Health (1970-1998)

Causes of Death & Death Rates
Los Angeles County, 2016-2018

* Death rates are per 100,000 population (the estimated population for 2017 per the California Dept. of Finance). Crude death rate is the total number of deaths due to any cause occurring among the population during the specified period, per 100,000 population. Age-adjusted death rate is the result of a statistical process that adjusts for differences in death rates by cause of death among different age groups, per 100,000 population.

Source: California Dept. of Public Health

Leading Premature Causes of Death
By Los Angeles County Region

The map below shows geographical statistical regions (Service Planning Areas or SPAs) in Los Angeles County used by local health-tracking agencies. According the last mortality report (2017) from the Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Health, Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of premature death in all SPAs except SPA 1 (motor vehicle crash), SPA 5 (drug overdose) and SPA 6 (homicide). The map below shows the eight SPAs and an icon for the second leading cause of premature death in each (except SPAs 1, 5 and 6, where, because coronary heart disease did not rank first, we retained the first-place causes in this map). The second leading cause of premature death in SPA 2 was drug overdose. For SPA 3 and SPA 4, it was suicide. For SPA 7, it was motor vehicle crash. For SPA 8, it was homicide.

Sources: Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Health