Health security

Cancer is now the leading cause of death in 22 states. Surprisingly, that’s good news.

For a long time, if you lived in America, there was a very good chance you’d die of heart disease. For more than half a century, it’s been far and away the leading cause of death here.

In recent years, however, the picture has started to change. The gap is narrowing between deaths due to heart disease and deaths caused by cancer in the United States, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After peaking in 1985, heart disease deaths have been falling (with a small uptick after 2010). Meanwhile, the number of deaths from cancer has nearly tripled since the 1950s.