How Does Cause of Death Contribute to the Hispanic Mortality Advantage in the United States?

The Hispanic population in the United States has lower overall mortality and higher life expectancy at birth than the non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black populations. The expectation has been that the Hispanic population should exhibit a mortality profile that is similar to that of the non-Hispanic black population, not one that is advantaged relative to the non-Hispanic white population (1-4). In this report, differences in the leading causes of death between the Hispanic and non-Hispanic white and black populations are explored to determine how they contributed to the life expectancy advantage of the Hispanic population in 2013.