Living, Aging, and Dying in NJ: The Story Behind the Data

The New Jersey State Health Assessment Data system isn’t a website people often visit or even know about – however, it’s an important source of information connected to public health.  It’s a way for residents to understand how folks in our state are living, aging and dying.

Public health data isn’t just for state agencies, hospitals or researchers – it can help everyday people and local governments ask more informed questions connected to their communities.

This month, the site was updated to include 2024 death and life expectancy data.  For example, we pulled the states mortality data from 2020-24 grouped by year and major causes of death, and it showed a sharp drop in COVID deaths after the initial years of the pandemic. In 2020 NJ logged over 16,000 COVID deaths which dropped to barely 1000 by 2024.

We also see the picture on NJ’s mortality coming back to harder, slower issues with Heart Disease showing as the leading cause of death (17,775), followed by cancer (15,368).

The NJSHAD also allows us to move beyond raw counts which can be useful but also misleading. NJ has an aging population which will naturally show a higher death count – age adjusted rates allows for better comparisons over time because they account for the difference in age structure. We pulled an age-adjusted rate export for 2020 through 2024, grouped by year and major cause of death, which allows for a better trend analysis than counts.

There were 74,976 deaths in that export and of those 25,812 were 85 and older, 19,873 ages 75 to 84 and 13,596 were 65 to 74, meaning 79% of deaths in the export were folks 65 and up; 61% were 75 or older.

Not surprising, but important – mortality data is also planning data.

Communities with older populations need to think about things like EMS capacity, senior transportation, housing, falls, chronic disease, caregiver support and access to health care.

The age data also shows that not every cause of death follows the same pattern.

In the 2020 through 2024 cause-by-age export, about 84% of heart disease deaths were among those 65 and older and about 76% of cancer deaths were among residents 65 and older. About 86% of stroke deaths were among residents 65 and older and 88% of chronic lower respiratory disease deaths were among residents 65 and older.

Alzheimer’s disease was (unsurprisingly) even more concentrated, with about 99% of deaths among residents 65 and older and about 94% among residents 75 and older.

But only about 28% of unintentional injury deaths were among residents 65 and older.

While heart disease and cancer dominate the overall totals, injury deaths tell a different public health story that reaches more deeply into younger and middle-aged age groups.That is exactly the kind of thing a public data system should help residents see.

Moving onto geography, NJSHAD’s 2024 life expectancy data shows New Jersey’s statewide life expectancy at birth was 81.8 years but county table shows how much that number varies across the state.

Hudson County was listed at 85.4 years,  Hunterdon County at 84.4 years,  Bergen at 84.2 years, Morris County at 83.8 years and Somerset County was listed at 83.4 years.

Union County was also above the statewide number at 82.7 years.

At the other end of the table, Cumberland and Salem both hit 76.0 years,  Atlantic and Camden at 78.8, Gloucester County at 78.9 years and Cape May County was listed at 79.1.

That’s a bit of a gap.

Geography is likely not the causal factor but differences between Counties can reflect income, housing, age structure, access to care, environmental conditions, chronic disease, injury patterns, violence, substance use, health behaviors and many other factors.

So we’re not talking about ‘just’ a technical update buried in a state website -it’s a reminder that New Jersey already maintains data that can help communities understand their public health needs.

The data does not tell the whole story.

But it shows where to start asking better questions.