APRIL 29, 2025|
Photo – Death Certificate example – Courtesy Wy Dept of Health website
The numbers are in and Wyoming saw more births, deaths, and marriages in 2024 than the previous year, but fewer divorces.
Official birth certificate data show 6,079 births recorded among Wyoming resident mothers in 2024, which is a slight increase over 5,989 births in 2023. There were 6,050 births in 2022, 6,240 births in 2021, 6,132 births in 2020 and 6,568 births in 2019.
Among Wyoming residents, there were 5,725 deaths recorded in 2024, 5,566 deaths in 2023, 5,895 deaths in 2022, 6,574 deaths in 2021, 5,986 deaths in 2020 and 5,122 deaths in 2019, according to official death certificate information. Death certificates are completed by medical certifiers, funeral professionals and coroners before being filed with Vital Statistics Services.
A vital record is an official document created by a government agency to document a major life event, usually for legal purposes. In Wyoming, these are birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates and are created by the Department of Health’s Vital Statistics unit or by county clerks.
The top five causes of death for Wyoming residents in 2024, listed in order, were heart diseases, cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related conditions, various types of accidents and adverse effects and cerebrovascular diseases. “There was no change in Wyoming’s top causes of death as compared to 2023,” according to Kyndra Herrera, the deputy registrar with VSS.
WDH Director Stefan Johansson said, “While not among Wyoming’s top causes of death, two specific areas of interest in our state continue to be suicide and overdose deaths. The tragic and unexpected nature of these deaths can have big impacts within our communities.”
Johansson said caution is necessary when reviewing these statistics. “It’s not realistic to describe changes in counts from one year to the next as trends. Our small population in Wyoming naturally leads to volatility in totals between years,” he said.
According to official state records, 168 suicide deaths occurred in Wyoming last year compared to 156 in 2023, 155 in 2022, 190 in 2021, 182 in 2020 and 170 in 2019.
The data shows that about 88 percent of Wyoming’s resident suicide deaths in 2024 were among males. About 72 percent of suicide deaths involved firearms, roughly 12 percent involved hanging and more than 8 percent involved poisoning.
There were 97 drug overdose deaths recorded among Wyoming residents in 2024 compared to 120 in 2023, 110 in 2022, 98 in 2021, 90 in 2020 and 81 in 2019.
Among the reported overdose deaths in 2024, 62 percent were linked to illegal drugs, 31 percent with prescription drugs and 3 percent involved a combination. Opioids can be either prescription drugs or illicit drugs and were connected to 45 of the reported overdose deaths last year. Methamphetamine was linked with 48 of the deaths and fentanyl was linked with 21.
Meanwhile, VSS also holds marriage and divorce records. There were 4,493 marriages recorded in Wyoming last year compared to 4,093 in 2023, 4,273 in 2022, 4,286 in 2021, 4,016 in 2020 and 4,065 in 2019. As far as divorces, there were 1,901 completed in 2024, 1,959 in 2023, 1,949 in 2022, 2,183 in 2021, 2,220 in 2020 and 2,241 in 2019.
Prior to 1908, the filing of birth and death certificates was not required in Wyoming. In 1907 the State Bureau of Vital Statistics was entrusted by the state legislature to register birth and death certificates (Session Laws of Wyoming, 1907, Chapter 99). The law took effect in January, 1908. However, the law was not able to implemented until 1909.
