Health articles
Get unbiased data and visuals on healthcare, health insurance, birth and death rates, life expectancy, sickness, and disease.
How many measles cases are there in the US?
As of July 29, 2025, 1,333 cases have been confirmed in 2025, 13% of which required hospitalization. There’s been 3 confirmed deaths. This is the highest annual case count since the US declared measles eliminated in 2000.
Updates monthlyJust the Facts about US healthcare and the health of Americans
Americans have faced many health challenges in recent years, from opioid addiction to COVID-19. And accidental deaths are rising. So what does the government spend on health for its citizens?
How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in the US?
About 105,007 overdose deaths in 2023. That means that for every 100,000 people living in the US, 31 died of a drug overdose. This is the third highest the drug overdose death rate has been since data from 1999 became available.
How much fentanyl is seized at US borders each month?
About 740 pounds in June 2025. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used medically as a pain reliever but is also trafficked illegally due to its potency. In 2023, the latest data available, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in 69% of fatal accidental drug overdoses in the US.
Updates monthlyHow many people die from gun-related injuries in the US each month?
An estimated 3.8K in August 2024, the most recent month for which data is available. This includes homicides, suicides, accidents, and other incidents where a shooting was considered the primary cause of death.
How many IVF babies are born in the US?
Parents who started assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatments in 2022 gave birth to 98,289 babies, the vast majority of whom were conceived via in vitro fertilization.From 2013 to 2022, the number of ART processes started more than doubled, and the number of infants born using these methods increased by 44.5%. One out of every 37 babies born in the US in 2022 was conceived using these treatments.
Aug 4, 2025Does access to healthcare differ by race and ethnicity?
Across several measures of health and access to healthcare, American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic adults often fare worse than other racial or ethnic identities. In 2024, about 14.8% of Americans were in fair or poor health. Zooming in on demographics reveals disparities between racial and ethnic groups. Adults in four groups — American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and Hispanic — report higher rates of fair or poor health than the national average.
Aug 1, 2025How many people are on Medicaid in the US?
On average, 89 million or 26.1% of the US population during FY 2024. Enrolling about 1 in 4 people in the US, Medicaid is one of the largest single health insurers in the country. Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program that provides free or low-cost coverage to eligible low-income individuals and families, including children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Updates annuallyHow many high schoolers are trans?
About one in 30 high schoolers identifies as transgender, according to the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. What does it mean to be transgender?Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s glossary, “transgender” is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. People whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth are called “cisgender.”What percentage of US high schoolers are trans?When given a description of what it means to be trans, 3.3% of high schoolers reported that it applied to them. Of the other students, 93.3% of reported not identifying as trans, 2.2% weren’t sure, and 1.3% didn’t understand the question.
Jul 7, 2025How far into pregnancy do most abortions happen?
In 2022, two out of five (40.2%) of reported abortions occurred within the first six weeks of pregnancy. Another 38.4% happened between seven and nine weeks, and 14.2% within 10 and 13 weeks. Put another way, 92.8% of reported abortions were performed before three and a half months of pregnancy.Farther into pregnancy, abortions are less common. Of the remaining 7.2% of reported abortions, 3.0% occurred between 14 and 15 weeks, 1.6% at 16 to 17 weeks, 1.5% at 18 to 20 weeks, and 1.1% at 21 weeks or more.
Jul 3, 2025How many people get sick from foodborne illnesses?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 9.9 million people (or a population that’s a bit more than New Jersey) contract foodborne illnesses every year. Of those, an estimated 53,300 people are hospitalized and 931 die.Foodborne illnesses are severely underreported; some outbreaks are never reported to local health departments, and some are never formally identified because individuals do not seek medical assistance. The CDC’s National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) collects all the data it can, but reporting is voluntary. Based NORS data, the number of reported illnesses decreased 65% from 1998 to 2023. In 2023, 9,521 Americans reported becoming sick from a foodborne illness.
May 8, 2025Which states have the highest and lowest life expectancy?
From 2022 to 2023, life expectancy across the United States rose from 77.5 to 78.4 years, according to final death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).But what exactly does life expectancy mean? And how does it vary by state?
Mar 27, 2025Drug prices have outpaced inflation since the 1980s
Drug prices were 5.5 times higher in 2024 than in 1985, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, and their increases are outpacing general cost-of-living increases: The cost of medication has gone up three times as fast as the overall rate of inflation, with drugs targeting heart disease rising the fastest.
Mar 21, 2025Do women live longer than men in the US?
In the United States, women are expected to outlive men by 5.3 years. This longevity gap, which was two years in 1900, grew to nearly eight around 1980 before dropping to its current level. What are the average lifespans for men and women born in the US?
Mar 21, 2025Which vaccines are recommended for American adults?
Federal vaccine recommendations and state mandates only apply to children, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends that adults stay up to date on certain vaccines. Which ones? It depends; recommended vaccinations depend on factors like age, pregnancy, or medical conditions increase infection risks.
Mar 12, 2025What are the leading causes of death in the US?
In 2022, heart disease, cancer, and accidents were the leading causes of death. Out of the nearly 3.3 million deaths in 2022, over 1.5 million, or 47%, were due to one of these three causes. The fourth, fifth, and sixth most common causes were COVID-19, cerebrovascular diseases, and chronic lower respiratory diseases.
How many people have mental illness in the United States?
About 58.7 million adults had a mental illness in 2023. That’s the equivalent of 22.8% of the adult population of the U.S, or 2 in 9 adults. This data comes from an annual survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which defines mental illness as a range of disorders, from mild to severe, affecting a person’s thinking, mood, or behavior.
Updates annuallyHow many people die by suicide in the United States each year?
About 49,476 people died by suicide in 2022. In other words, there were about 14.2 suicides for every 100,000 people in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says several factors cause suicide and they exist at individual, community, and societal levels.
What does the Department of Health and Human Services do?
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch agency responsible for overseeing public health policy and administering funding for health programs and services. The department's functions include managing national health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, advancing medical research, ensuring food and drug safety, and promoting health equity for all individuals. It was established in 1980 after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was reorganized into separate entities.
Updates annuallyHow many kids are vaccinated?
Children born during the COVID-19 pandemic are getting fewer vaccines compared to children born in the 2010s. To control infectious diseases in the US population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all kids get a set of vaccines known as the “combined 7-series” vaccines, by the time they turn 2. Though trends for the individual vaccines in the series vary, complete vaccination is trending downward: 72.8% of children born in 2020 and 2021 got the full set of seven by 35 months, compared to 74.4% of children born in 2013–2014.
Feb 7, 2025