Mortality patterns--United States, 1988.

In 1988, 2,167,999 deaths were registered in the United States--a total of 44,676 more deaths than in 1987 and the largest annual final number ever recorded. As in previous years, nearly three fourths of deaths were caused by the first four leading causes of death--heart disease, cancer, stroke, and unintentional injury. This report summarizes mortality data compiled by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for 1988 and compares patterns with 1987.