The age-adjusted U.S. death rate dropped roughly 3% from 2005 to 2006, reaching an all-time low of 776 deaths per 100,000 individuals, according to a CDC review of national mortality data.

Among the other findings:

* Deaths due to either influenza or pneumonia saw the biggest decline, a 13% drop.
* Mortality from other leading causes — for example, chronic lower respiratory diseases, heart disease, diabetes, and essential hypertension or hypertensive renal disease — also fell significantly.
* Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, and homicide saw drops in mortality, but these did not reach significance.
* Life expectancy at birth reached a record high of 78.1 years, up 0.3 years from 2005.