Provisional COVID-19 Deaths by Demographic Group

Provisional death counts from January 1, 2020 to July 28, 2020 are broken down by sex, race/ethnicity, and age group. The data includes COVID-19 deaths coded to ICD-10 U07.1, as well as counts for other major causes of death like heart disease and diabetes. It was published by data.cdc.gov, part of the National Center for Health Statistics.

Use Cases

• Analyze disparities in COVID-19 mortality by comparing `COVID-19 (U071, Underlying Cause of Death)` counts across `Sex`, `Race/Ethnicity`, and `Age group`.
• Model the relationship between COVID-19 deaths and other causes by using `AllCause` and `NaturalCause` totals alongside specific disease columns like `Diseases of heart`.
• Track provisional mortality trends over time using the `MMWRWeek` and `Year` columns for the specified analysis period.
• Compare COVID-19 as an underlying versus contributing cause of death using the `COVID-19 (U071, Multiple Cause of Death)` column.

Strengths

• Includes detailed demographic breakdowns by sex, race/ethnicity, and age group.
• Covers a defined 7-month period from the first year of the pandemic.
• Provides counts for COVID-19 alongside 12 other major causes of death for comparison.

Limitations

• Data is provisional and covers only the first half of 2020, missing the full pandemic scope.
• Sample size and row count are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Geographic coverage is unspecified, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

data.cdc.gov, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Collection Method

Provisional death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

Time Range

January 1, 2020 to July 28, 2020.

Freshness

Dataset metadata was last updated in April 2025, but the underlying data covers early 2020.