One way to track the health of the nation every year is with the leading causes of death which can be found here https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm for all ages in the United States. The rate of death is called mortality.
While it takes time to fully finalize leading causes of death and the final figure for 202 is not yet available, the provisional numbers have been released – https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7014e1.htm. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020.
We can also see how long people are expected to live – this is called life expectancy. Right now the average life expectancy is 78.6 years according to the CDC. You can also see differences by sex and ethnicity here – https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm.
Generally, life expectancy has been on the rise across most of the world, reflecting advances in medicine. However, in the US life expectancy has declined for the past 3 years – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/us-life-expectancy-drops-third-year-row-reflecting-rising-drug-overdose-suicide-rates-180970942/.
In the Untied States, there exist health disparities – differences in health status and health outcomes in different groups. One of the missions of HealthyPeople 2030 is to achieve health equity, that is the improve health for all groups and to close the gaps that currently exist between groups. The CDC in partnership with many organizations, both public and private, work to reach health equity – some examples of programs are here https://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/strategies2016/index.html.
