This data visualization presents national-level provisional counts of maternal deaths based on a current flow of mortality data in the National Vital Statistics System. Provisional counts include deaths among U.S. residents in the United States, as of the date specified and may not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period (see Technical Notes).

A maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy. In this data visualization, maternal deaths are those deaths with an underlying cause of death assigned to International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) code numbers A34, O00–O95, and O98–O99.

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The provisional data presented on Figures 1-3 include reported 12 month-ending provisional counts of maternal death overall, and by age, and by race/ethnicity. Provisional maternal death counts presented in this data visualization are for “12-month ending periods,” defined as the number of deaths occurring in the 12-month period ending in the month indicated. For example, the 12-month ending period in June 2020 would include deaths occurring from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020. Evaluation of trends over time should compare estimates from year to year (June 2020 and June 2021), rather than month to month, to avoid overlapping time periods. It is important to note that the data represent counts of death, and not maternal mortality ratios or rates, which are the standard measure used to compare groups, and therefore should not be used to determine populations at disproportionate risk of maternal death. In the visualization and in the accompanying data file, death counts between 1-9 are suppressed in accordance with National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) confidentiality standards.

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