HHDW is pleased to announce a new series of reports on the Leading Causes of Death in Hawaiʻi. The series of three reports uses pie charts and matrices to display the leading causes of death in Hawaiʻi across different demographics. Modeled after the National Vital Statistics System Leading Causes of Death report, the Hawaiʻi reports include the leading causes of death among those aged 1 year and older for the state by year from 2017-2021 and by county, age group and Hawaiʻi-specfic race/ethnicity for the three years from 2019-2021. Two additional reports use 5-year aggregates (2017-2021) to examine the leading causes of death for females ages 15-44 years and the leading causes of death by race/ethnicity and sex.
The Leading Causes of Death in Hawaiʻi reports can be accessed from Death Data Source page and will be updated annually.
Below are some highlights:
- In 2021, heart disease (20.9%), cancer (20.1%), stroke (7.5%) and COVID-19 (5.2%) were the leading causes of death in Hawaiʻi accounting for 53.7% of all deaths in the state.
- There were more deaths among males than females from 2019-2021 (18,855 compared to 16,323).
- Heart disease (23.9%), cancer (20.9%), unintentional injury (6.9%), stroke (5.8%) and chronic lower respiratory disease (3.5%) were the top 5 causes of death among males.
- Cancer (21.0%), heart disease (18.9%), stroke (8.8%), Alzheimer disease (6.9%), and unintentional injury (3.5%) were the top 5 causes of death among females.
- Unintentional injury was the number 1 cause of death from 2019-2021 among those ages 1-9 years, 10-24 years, and 25-44 years (28.6%, 34.7%, and 24.2%, respectively), and a leading cause of death in all other age groups.
View the reports here.
