Fewer Coloradans died in 2023 than in the previous year, but the state still lost more people than it did before the pandemic. Drug overdoses, COVID-19 and organ damage from alcohol were the biggest culprits behind the still-elevated number of deaths since the pandemic. In contrast, fewer people died last year of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, after accounting for the state population’s growth and aging since 2019.
Last year, 44,862 people died in the state. Colorado’s death rate peaked in 2021, when COVID-19 killed thousands of people, before dropping again in the next two years. But 5,544 more people still died in 2023 than had in 2019 — a 7% increase, after adjusting for population changes, according to newly finalized data released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Both men and women had higher death rates in 2023 than they did in 2019; the state’s data doesn’t break out nonbinary people. So did every age group except infants. Colorado changed how it reported racial data in 2020, so the numbers don’t allow for comparisons before the pandemic.
In 2020, Colorado’s mortality rate rose not only because thousands of people died from COVID-19, but also because deaths increased from heart disease, cancer, strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers haven’t landed on a single explanation for the increased death from multiple causes, but delayed medical care and complications from the virus could be factors. Deaths .
