Objective To provide evidence for disease control and prevention policy, we characterized the mortality and the causes of death in Nanshan district of Shenzhen in 2015 using the data from national death reporting system. Method We described the mortality rate, proportion, potential years of life lost (PYLL). The major causes of death and life lose were analyzed at the same time. Results Totally 791 death cases were reported in 2015 and the crude mortality rate was 104.93/105. The mortality rate in male was higher than that in female. The first five causes of death were cancer, heart diseases, cerebral vascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and injury. These five causes accounted for 80.66% of the total death causes. The leading five causes for PYLL in the whole population were cancer, injury, heart diseases, cerebral vascular diseases, respiratory diseases, respectively. Conclusion s The main cause of death in Nanshan district was chronic diseases. Injury was the main cause of loss of life expectancy for young adults.