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Avoidable deaths increased in the U.S. as they dropped elsewhere 

Compared with European Union countries and others, the United States is an outlier

A picture of an empty stretcher in an empty hospital corridor for a story on avoidable deaths

While avoidable deaths in the United States rose, on average, from 2009 to 2019, they trended down for European Union countries and others.

David Sacks/Getty Images

By Aimee Cunningham

In the United States, the number of deaths that didn’t have to happen has risen over time.

From 2009 to 2019, the average rate of avoidable deaths rose by 33 per 100,000 people across the country, researchers report March 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine.