Leading causes of death in the United States.

Ranking the common causes of death among different age groups can be a useful tool in finding out the options to reduce cause-specific morbidity and mortality rates. It should be kept in mind that rankings, however, do not illustrate the mortality risk. The ranking of a specific cause as a reason for frequent deaths may change over time, even if the mortality rates have not changed. Similarly, ranking of a specific cause may remain the same, even though the mortality rate declines; therefore, it is not intelligible to conclude the mortality risk from the rankings of mortality rates.