# NCHS Death Rates and Life Expectancy at Birth

## Local file

- Dataset file: `nchs_death_rates_life_expectancy.csv`
- Topic: Health and mortality
- Format: CSV
- Retrieved: 2026-07-01
- Size: 34,059 bytes, about 33.3 KB
- Shape: 1,071 data rows, 5 columns
- SHA-256: `c2473acf4bcc22c876ebd67abf131e89ea46c3ed35f1cdf23025301ac39b3bdf`

## Source

- Found at: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/nchs-death-rates-and-life-expectancy-at-birth
- Publisher: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Parent organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Direct download used: https://data.cdc.gov/api/views/w9j2-ggv5/rows.csv?accessType=DOWNLOAD

## What it is

This dataset summarizes U.S. mortality trends by year, race, and sex. It includes average life expectancy in years and age-adjusted death rates. The data.gov record describes the dataset as a National Center for Health Statistics mortality trend dataset covering historical death-rate and life-expectancy measures.

The local CSV fields are:

- `Year`
- `Race`
- `Sex`
- `Average Life Expectancy (Years)`
- `Age-adjusted Death Rate`

## Notes for static website use

- This is very small and safe to include directly in a static build.
- The dataset works well for line charts comparing life expectancy or death rates across race and sex categories.
- `Year` is numeric and can be parsed directly for timeline charts.
- Keep labels clear: death rate and life expectancy use different units and should not share the same axis without normalization.
- The CSV was downloaded as-is from the source. No filtering, sorting, or transformations were applied.