Nearly Three-Quarters of US Counties Saw Spike in Deaths in 2021, Census Data Show

People wear masks at an indoor mall in The Oculus in lower Manhattan on the day that a mask mandate went into effect in New York on Dec. 13, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Nearly three-quarters of counties in the United States experienced a spike in deaths in 2021, according to newly released Census data.

More than 73 percent (2,297) of U.S. counties experienced a “natural decrease” in population in 2021, up from 45.5 percent in 2019 and 55.5 percent in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2021 estimates of population and components of change.