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Death Rates for the 2023 New Mexico Overall 10 Leading Causes of Death by Cause of Death, U.S. and New Mexico, 2023

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Why Is This Important?

Death rates by leading causes of death show areas where health improvement and prevention programs could be targeted to reduce the greatest number of deaths.

The causes of death shown in the bar chart and data table are the 10 leading causes of death in New Mexico in 2023. The causes are ranked according to the age-adjusted death rates for NM. The U.S. death rates for those same causes are also shown for comparison. The multi-colored grid underneath the bar chart shows the 10 leading causes of death for New Mexico versus the ranking of those same causes for the U.S.
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To view the colored grid image, zoom-in using your browser, or right-click on the image to copy it, and paste it into another program.

Definition

Death rates for the leading causes of death are the number of deaths per 100,000 New Mexico population from each cause, ranked according to the number of deaths.

Data Notes

  • Rates have been age-adjusted using the direct method and the 2000 U.S. standard population. For more information on age-adjustment, please visit [https://ibis.doh.nm.gov/resource/AARate.html the NM-IBIS page on age-adjustment].
  • The leading causes in the colored grid, below, were ranked by the age-adjusted death rates in New Mexico.

Data Sources

  • New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
    (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC WONDER Online Database
    (http://wonder.cdc.gov)
  • New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
    (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

Numerator:Number of deaths from the specified cause
Denominator:Total population

Data Issues

  • Death Certificate Data

    Death certificate information is submitted electronically by funeral directors, who obtain demographic information from an informant, a close family member of the decedent. The NMDOH Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS) does annual trainings for funeral directors and local registrars and the death certificate information goes through extensive scrutiny for completeness and consistency. The cause of death is certified by the decedent's physician or the physician that attended the death. Accidental and suspicious deaths are certified by the Office of the Medical Investigator. When death certificates are received the cause of death literals are keyed into software locally by the BVRHS, then shipped to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) where they are machine coded into ICD-10 cause-of-death codes. NCHS returns the ICD-10 codes to BVRHS where the death records are updated.

  • New Mexico Population Estimates

    {{class RedText NOTE: On January 16, 2025, the NM-IBIS and NMTracking POPULATION ESTIMATES FOR YEARS **2010 THROUGH 2023** WERE REPLACED. Data from the 2020 decennial census were used to update the estimates. Rates calculated using the NM-IBIS and NMTracking web-based queries are affected. Any rates that use population denominators that were calculated after January 16, 2025 will be different from those calculated prior to that date. We apologize for the inconvenience.}} All population estimates apply to July 1 of the selected year. These estimates are considered the most accurate estimates for the state of New Mexico and should match those found on the University of New Mexico [https://gps.unm.edu/pop/population-estimates.html Geospatial and Population Studies website]. Estimates include decimal fractions. Census tract population estimates were summed to produce County estimates. Population estimate totals may vary slightly due to rounding.

Health Topic Pages Related to: Death Rates from Leading Causes of Death

Community Health Resources and Links





Medical literature can be queried at the PubMed website.

Indicator Data Last Updated On 02/17/2025, Published on 03/05/2025
Community Health Assessment Program, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health, 1190 S. Saint Francis Drive, P.O. Box 26110, Santa Fe, NM, 87502. Contact Rena Manning at rena.manning@doh.nm.gov