TOTAL MORTALITY

Diseases of the heart (heart disease), malignant neoplasms (cancer), and cerebrovascular diseases (stroke), in that order, continued to be the three leading causes of death of New Jerseyans (Figure M2 and Table M2). Together, these three underlying causes accounted for 63.0 percent of resident deaths in 1996. Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), a grouped cause which encompasses chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, and unspecified chronic airways obstruction, ranked fourth as a cause of death, followed by pneumonia and influenza in fifth place. Diabetes mellitus, which was the seventh leading cause of death in 1995, became the sixth leading cause in 1996. Unintentional injuries moved up one in ranking from eighth to seventh in 1996. HIV infection dropped from the sixth leading cause of death in 1995 to the eighth in 1996. Septicemia and nephritis/nephrosis remained ninth and tenth, respectively. Chart M1 presents the average daily toll of deaths by cause in 1996. Tables M23 and M23A through M23J provide the distribution of deaths by cause group and age for the total resident population by race/sex category, while Table M24 provides a more detailed distribution of cause of death by age group. Table M28 has the basic distribution of 39 causes of death of residents of each county in New Jersey.

The eight leading causes of death in the United States were the same as in New Jersey, though not in the same order. In the nation as a whole, suicide was the ninth leading cause of death and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis was the tenth leading cause in 1996 (Peters, K.D., 1998).

For eight of the ten leading causes of death in 1996 the numbers of deaths were lower than in 1995. The number of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and nephritis/nephrosis each increased slightly. While the ten leading causes were the same in 1995 and 1996, the ranks of three causes changed. HIV infection fell from the sixth leading cause of death in New Jersey to the eighth, causing diabetes mellitus and pneumonia/influenza to each move up one in rank (Table M2).

While heart disease, cancer, and HIV infection all had large decreases in numbers of deaths, the percentage decrease was by far largest for HIV infection, a 29.8 percent decrease from the 1995 number. This is the first time the number of deaths due to HIV infection has declined since it was added to the list of rankable causes in 1988.