A Surprising Thing Is Behind the Leading Cause of Death in Teens

Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare. There are few things that can compare, and it's always a devastating loss, no matter how it happens or the age of the child.

But, according to data collected by the U.S. government and other leading health organizations, there's one cause of death that seems especially high in kids aged 12-19 years old.

And sadly enough, the leading cause of death in teens may be an entirely preventable one in certain situations and circumstances.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put together a list of the five leading causes of death among teens in this age group, and the organization has shared them with the public.

According to the CDC, teen deaths account for roughly one percent of all deaths each year; however, the leading cause of death is responsible for 48 percent of those deaths each year.

You can learn more about what that cause is and what four other things are included in the CDC's findings.

It's a very sad statistic to read, but according to the CDC's findings, 48 percent of all teens killed between 1999 and 2006 died due to unintentional injuries. And while that info may seem dated since it's almost 20 years old, it appears to be the most recent data published for that age group.

The CDC further broke down those numbers, finding that death rates were 37 percent higher for non-Hispanic Black teenagers when compared with non-Hispanic white teenagers.

The CDC further reports that males appear to have a higher rate of death than females.

As for the leading cause of unintentional deaths, it appears that car accidents accounted for 73 percent.

These figures were calculated after looking at an average of 16,375 deaths per year from 1999 to 2006, and they were pulled from the Multiple Case of Death files that were prepared by the National Vital Statistics System.

These numbers included teens whose deaths occurred in the U.S.

According to the CDC, after unintentional injury, homicide, suicide, cancer, and heart disease are the next most common causes of death. Approximately 13 percent of the teen deaths that occurred between 1999 and 2006 were due to homicide. Sadly, when it came to death rates, 39.2 percent of non-Hispanic Black males were more likely to die due to homicide, vs 17.1 percent of Hispanic males.

After that, suicide accounted for 11 percent of the deaths, and cancer accounted for 6 percent.

Heart disease accounts for 3 percent of deaths in American teens. While it may seem odd that so many teens would be impacted by heart disease, the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that heart disease was the leading cause of death across all age groups in the U.S. from 2019 to 2023.

Out of the 3,090,582 deaths in 2023, 680,909 were due to heart disease, according to the medical journal.

While it may be a few more years until updated figures are released, it does seem like these trends are set to continue for now.