Ohio’s Leading Cause of Death is Concerning

Death is one of life's most grim assurances, just after taxes, of course. Death comes for us all and we're never truly ready for it, whether for ourselves or those we care most for.

That's why it's rather important to take note of what exactly is killing us the most, especially among working-age people. The gallery below points out Ohio's leading causes of death in 2022 among people ages 15-64.

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Naturally, on the national scale, when accounting for the entire population, heart disease and cancer are some of the more noteworthy leaders that kill Americans. Those being ailments that can catch us off guard and are all too often found too late, it's understandable why that's the case. Those two causes of death led the nation to take nearly 1.3 million lives in 2021. COVID-19 wasn't far behind in 2021, but the gap between cancer and accidents on the national scale was still rather large.

Ohio doesn't follow the national trend, or at least the state didn't in 2022.

The death toll in Ohio is somewhat alarming overall, according to the statistic provided by Health Policy Institute of Ohio. The state has seen a 32% increase in working-age deaths since 2007, and that's even with a lowered death rate since the pandemic in 2020. Conversely, while not the focus of this article necessarily, the death rate of Ohioans 65 and older has also risen 30% since 2007. Thankfully, children 14 and under have died at a lower rate since 2007, with 13% less fatalities. It's worth noting, however, that the state has seen a 7% decrease in the population of children under 14 in the time period as well.

In any event, the trends in Ohio are grim. More people of working age are dying and the sad part is that much of it is preventable. Here are the top 10 leading causes of death in Ohio for people aged 15-64.