For the first time since the early twentieth century, more people in the United States are dying at home than in hospitals.

In survey after survey, people say they’d like to die at home rather than in an institution. Even so, by the early 1980s, more than half of US deaths took place in hospitals.

To track recent trends, Sarah Cross at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and Haider Warraich at Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare Systems analysed death certificates and other data. The team found that in 2003, 40% of US deaths took place in hospitals and 24% took place in nursing homes. By 2017, those numbers had fallen to 30% and 21%.

Over the same time period, the proportion of home deaths rose from 24% to 31%, and deaths in hospice facilities also increased. The trend favouring death outside the hospital extends to people dying of a wide variety of diseases, the researchers say.