Definition of "death rate" []

• The ratio of total deaths to total population in a specified community or area over a specified period of time. The death rate is often expressed as the number of deaths per 1,000 of the population per year. Also called fatality rate. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As the death rate climb [l] ed steadily through the hot summer of 1898, and the Army's under - staffed, under-equipped medical department struggled stoutly to keep up with its duties, the costliness of the penny-pinching policies applied to the Corps for so many years became glaringly apparent."
• "Avian-flu death rate may be tied to overkill by immune systems."
• "In the same pamphlet, Plomley added: “Many causes contributed to the extinction of the Tasmanians and, although it may seem obvious to say so, the basic cause was that the death rate exceeded the birth rate after European contact.”"