Objectives: Thyroid cancers with low T-stage and nodal burden are common incidental findings at autopsy; however, less is known about the frequency of non-thyroid head and neck cancers diagnosed at autopsy. It is important to identify the prevalence of various head and neck cancers found at autopsy and their association with morality as cancers differ in risk factors and severity. Design: Head and neck cancers excluding cutaneous malignancy were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Case-related data was reviewed to characterize the demographic factors associated with the head and neck cancers found at autopsy. Fisher’s Exact Test was used to identify correlations between cancer-related mortality and cancer type. Results: We reviewed 678 cases of head and neck cancers diagnosed at autopsy from 2000 to 2017. The most common causes of death found at autopsy in non-thyroid carcinoma were cancer-related mortality (51.40%), heart disease (14.95%), and accidents (5.61%). Thyroid carcinoma was the cause of death in 17 (3.01%) patients. The top three causes of death in this group were heart disease (26.19%), accident (9.20%), and infection (6.19%). Patients with non-thyroid cancer were 17.1 (95% CI: 9.55 - 30.6, p < 0.001) times more likely to have cancer-related death than those with thyroid carcinoma. Conclusion: The high rate of cancer-related deaths in postmortem diagnosis of non-thyroid head and neck cancers reveals the need for physicians to increase detection vigilance and emphasizes the need to improve screening in those who may be high risk for disease development or progression.