Death may be unavoidable, but more people managed to put it off a little bit longer in 2004, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Vital Statistics. The death rate in United States fell to 816.7 per 100,000 population, 3 percent lower than the 841.9 rate in 2003. A total of 2,398,343, people died in the United States in 2004, according to preliminary figures. That represented a 49,945 decrease from the 2003 total. Heart disease remained the leading killer, but death by all leading causes dropped with the exception of a 1.4 percent increase in Alzheimer's disease deaths and a 2.7 percent in primary hypertension and hypertensive renal disease. Life expectancy at birth rose by 0.4 years to a record high of 77.9 years.