Abstract: Objective The study was designed to get insight into the death cause of the residents in Taiyuan City in 2004 in order tO provide basis for the formulation of the regional health planning．Methods 9017 cases of death report were received by the surveillance system of death causes in Taiyuan in 2004．MicroAccess was employed to create and cleanse database，and to analyze the death causes．Results The rank of the top five of death causes is malignant tumour，cerebrovascular disease，heart disease，injury，poisoning，and respiratory disease．The leading death cause was injury and poisoning in the groups aged 5-44 years，malignant tumour in the groups aged 45-79 years．Cerebrovascular disease in the groups aged 80-84 years．Natural death in the groups aged over 85 years，with difference in the rank of death cause for different sex，and different peak season for different diseases．Conclusion The leading death cause of the residents in Taiyuan is malignant tumour，with different characteristics for different age，sex，season，which should be attached great importance to．