More Older Americans Are Dying From This Common Issue

According to a new CDC report, death rates from unintentional falls among seniors are rising fast, and it’s become one of the deadliest parts of the aging process for Americans.

Between 2003 and 2023, death rates from falls skyrocketed, up 70 percent for folks 65–74, over 75 percent for those 75–84, and more than doubled for seniors 85 and up. In 2023 alone, over 41,000 older adults died after an accidental fall.

Why the number has skyrocketed is a bit of a mystery. It could be as simple as we got better at identifying falls as the official cause of death. So many health issues that have seemingly become more prevalent in recent years might just be the result of the fact that we know how to look for them now.

There might be another reason: people are living much longer than they used to, making it to an age where the basic act of walking from the living room to the kitchen becomes akin to walking a tight rope between skyscrapers. The older you get, the frailer you become, the more your balance falters. And, lest we forget, a lot of old people are on a cocktail of medications, some of which have side effects that include dizziness and loss of balance, which themselves lead to side effects like tripping, falling, breaking bones, and dying.

Another odd part of the report: white seniors are dying at significantly higher rates than other groups. White seniors make up 87 percent of all fall-related deaths for people 85 and over. Usually, public health numbers are the other way around. It’s the minority groups that are more severely impacted. Black seniors, however, had the lowest death rates from falls, and the researchers have no idea why.

When you get into the specific geographical regions where old people are falling, states like Wisconsin and Minnesota have the highest death rates from falls, with Alabama at the bottom of the list. This is probably less mysterious, as Wisconsin and Minnesota are covered in snow and ice for much of the year, perfect conditions for elderly slip and falls. Though the report suggests the difference could be at least partially explained by reporting practices and death certificate classifications, which vary from state to state.

Aging has its inevitabilities. You can’t outrun them forever, but you can hold them off as long as possible by staying active, maintaining strength, maintaining balance, and by trying to remain as mobile as possible, if you want to avoid death by tripping.