Excess mortality in the U.S. is concentrated in those with lower levels of educational attainment
July 1, 2025
Summary: Those who do not have college degrees have far higher rates of excess mortality than Americans with college degrees.
Excess mortality rate by cause of death and college statu
Source: Paglino, et al JAMA Health Forum June 13, 2025
The United States lags other developed countries in improvement in premature mortality rates, although those at higher socioeconomic levels in the U.S. have similar life expectancy to those in other countries. Researchers reviewed the causes of excess mortality among adults over age 35 in the U.S. compared to a model where U.S. mortality continued to decline as it had from 2006-2010. The paper was published earlier this month in JAMA Health Forum.
They found that there were 525,505 excess deaths in 2023, and those who did not graduate from college represented 92% of the excess deaths. Those who did not graduate from college had a 26% higher mortality rate than expected, whereas college graduates experienced only an 8% increase. Men had much higher rates of excess death than women regardless of educational levels, and circulatory disease was the largest cause of excess death.
Among college graduates, deaths from cancer were lower than expected each year between 2010 and 2023.
Implications for employers:
Employees with less education, who are often lower wage workers, have the highest likelihood of dying prematurely.
Being sure that campaigns to improve cancer screening engage high-school graduates lower wage workers could help narrow this gap.