death rate

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun 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.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The proportion of deaths among the inhabitants of a town, country, etc., in a given period of time, usually reckoned at so many in a thousand per annum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun mortality rate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the ratio of deaths in an area to the population of that area; expressed per 1000 per year
• noun the ratio of deaths in an area to the population of that area; expressed per 1000 per year