ORLANDO, Fla. – How does COVID-19 compare with other causes of death in Florida? This interactive graphic, crafted by News 6 partner Florida Today, shows the leading causes of death in Florida in 2018, as averaged out over the entire year — and compares them against the daily tallies of COVID-19 deaths.
It's not exact because for the purposes of comparison, the graphic takes the 2018 totals for leading causes of death and spreads them out uniformly throughout the entire year.
The 2018 data is the most recent year available from the Florida Department of Health. Heart disease topped all causes of death in Florida that year, with 46,929 (23%) of the 205,461 deaths.