Weekly State-Level Death Counts by Cause for 2020-2023

Weekly Provisional Counts of Deaths by State and Select Causes, 2020-2023 provides provisional mortality data by week of occurrence, state, and underlying cause. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services compiled this dataset, which includes specific counts for COVID-19 (ICD-10 U07.1) and other select causes. The data is presented with a one-week lag and covers the period from 2020 through 2023.

Use Cases

• Analyze weekly trends in COVID-19 deaths (ICD-10 U07.1) by state to assess pandemic impact over the 2020-2023 period.
• Compare mortality rates for specific causes like Influenza, Cancer, and Diseases Of Heart across different states on a weekly basis.
• Model temporal patterns in All Causes mortality using the weekly death counts and state-level geography.
• Investigate co-mortality patterns by examining relationships between select underlying causes of death within the provisional data.

Strengths

• Data covers a critical four-year period (2020-2023) encompassing the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Includes granular breakdowns by week of death occurrence, state of occurrence, and multiple select causes of death.
• Explicitly tracks COVID-19 mortality using the standardized ICD-10 code U07.1.

Limitations

• Data is provisional and subject to revision; counts are presented with a known one-week reporting lag.
• The dataset was officially discontinued for updates as of September 27, 2023, limiting its use for current analysis.
• Specific data volume metrics like row and column counts are unavailable, making scale assessment difficult.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, likely via the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

Collection Method

Provisional death counts compiled from state vital records offices.

Time Range

2020 through 2023.

Freshness

Data updates were discontinued on September 27, 2023. The metadata was last updated on April 23, 2025.

Geography

United States, including individual states and Puerto Rico.