Odds of Dying, by cause

[MichaelB]

Fantastic chart from The Economist here, the odds of dying over a 1 year period by different causes. Heart disease is still far and away the leading cause, although many of the other (and far less likely) causes are much more present in popular media.

Some forum members may regret the fact that death by asteroid is still very unlikely, more than 74 million to one odds against.

 

[REWahoo]

Some forum members may regret the fact that death by asteroid is still very unlikely, more than 74 million to one odds against.

Bet some folks in Russia aren't buying these odds...

 

[UnderTheRadar]

Surprised they don't have plane crash highlighted...since so many have fear of flying.

Also, wonder what the nuance difference is between the two firearm categories.

 

[palomalou]

Astonishing, and illuminating! What I was so surprised to see was the deaths by walking. Wish they had divided auto accidents out from all accidents. I'd like to compare that to walking.

 

[Midpack]

Good info for RE planning. It's encouraging that heart disease at #1 is still only 467 to 1, especially knowing most of us can improve those odds by our behavior. But very sad what #3 is, I would have guessed much lower...

 

[Lazarus]

World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100%

World Death Rate Holding Steady At 100 Percent | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

 

[braumeister]

Even so, ask a dinosaur about this.

 

[REWahoo]

Even so, ask a dinosaur about this.

I've already responded.

 

[MichaelB]

I've already responded.

Bet some folks in Russia aren't buying these odds...

How many have lost their lives from the asteroid (not counting heart attacks)?

 

[JoeWras]

Here's a different look. Instead of a year, it looks at a lifetime.

http://www.nsc.org/NSC Picture Library/News/web_graphics/Injury_Facts_37.pdf

#1 Heart Disease
#2 Cancer
#3 Stroke
#4 Motor Vehicle Accidents
#5 Self Harm

Air and space transport are near the bottom.

The #5 above is sad and disturbing. We've made progress on the top 4. More to go.

 

[kyounge1956]

(snip)Also, wonder what the nuance difference is between the two firearm categories.

I wondered that too. Maybe assault by firearm is when somebody shoots you deliberately, and firearm discharge is when somebody shoots you by accident or mistake?

 

[freebird5825]

Fantastic chart from The Economist here, the odds of dying over a 1 year period by different causes. Heart disease is still far and away the leading cause, although many of the other (and far less likely) causes are much more present in popular media.

Some forum members may regret the fact that death by asteroid is still very unlikely, more than 74 million to one odds against.

Exhale.............

Q & A and Video Animations from NASA on Asteroid 2012 DA14 and Its Near Earth Approach | SciTech Daily

 

[timo2]

Me, I'd much rather go by asteroid than the more mundane alternatives. It would be my only chance at the history books ;-)

And I love the little descriptive drawings by the name of the cause of death!

 

[Amethyst]

I'd assume that the vast majority of those who die while walking, are killed by motor vehicles. There is a fellow who walks our (non-sidewalk) side street, in predawn darkness, wearing gray clothing with no reflective tape, and carrying a stupid little red blinking light. He is often right opposite the exit from our driveway just as I am leaving for work at o-dark-thirty. I watch for him, but he is hard to see.

Amethyst

Astonishing, and illuminating! What I was so surprised to see was the deaths by walking. Wish they had divided auto accidents out from all accidents. I'd like to compare that to walking.

 

[GrayHare]

The groupings are both somewhat arbitrary and omissive. For example, where does "assault with a knife" fit?

 

[Alan]

Surprised they don't have plane crash highlighted...since so many have fear of flying.

Yeah, they left it lumped under all categories of accidents, and that includes car fatalities which swamp air fatalities

Also, wonder what the nuance difference is between the two firearm categories.

"Assault by firearm" is obviously deliberate, I guess "Firearms discharge" is classed as an accident.

 

[haha]

I'd assume that the vast majority of those who die while walking, are killed by motor vehicles. There is a fellow who walks our (non-sidewalk) side street, in predawn darkness, wearing gray clothing with no reflective tape, and carrying a stupid little red blinking light. He is often right opposite the exit from our driveway just as I am leaving for work at o-dark-thirty. I watch for him, but he is hard to see.

Amethyst

A fair number of people in Seattle get run over by Metro buses. Dark days, lots of rain and mist, distracted drivers and sometimes very clueless pedestrians. i was coming home one night on a bus and the driver through no fault of her own almost knocked down some idiot who cut right across the path of the bus with an unlighted bicycle. She managed to stop, but was very shaken by the experience.

I wear an orange parka, or in wamer weather one of those high-vis green vests, and I pick my routes with attention to where I will be crossing. A particular hazard this time of year with the sun low on the horizon is drivers cresting a hill going west on a clear afternoon. They really can't see anything with the sun coming directly into their eyes, so I only cross at lights, never crosswalks.

Every year there are more pedestrians who never or rarely drive, and so it is hard for them to put themselves in a driver's shoes. When I am driving at night, I pick routes that do not go through night life districts, as these people are often completely oblivious to what is going on around them.

Ha

 

[Lazarus]

"Assault by firearm" is obviously deliberate, I guess "Firearms discharge" is classed as an accident.

If your finger is not on the trigger the gun will not discharge.

 

[Original Wally]

Which reminds me of a small rant of mine.... the whole "breast cancer" thing. This is a real cottage industry. If you isolate breast cancer deaths, IIRC, it is not even in the top ten. Yet giving to it is de rigueur. To not give means you are a hearltess bastard - damn the statistics. Rant off.

 

[Alan]

If your finger is not on the trigger the gun will not discharge.

Not so. The last boss I had told me how he once shot himself in the shoulder as a teenager. He had shot a squirell but not killed it. Rather than waste a bullet he hit it with the butt of his rifle and shot himself.

 

[packrat44]

If your finger is not on the trigger the gun will not discharge.

Not true all the time. When I was young I had a Winchester Model 97 12 gauge that on several occasions when chambering a round the hammer would drop and discharge.

 

[haha]

Not true all the time. When I was young I had a Winchester Model 97 12 gauge that on several occasions when chambering a round the hammer would drop and discharge.

Yep; totally unsafe but a very cool shotgun. I shot a lot of rabbits with one of these with no choke at all.

Old fashioned revolvers could discharge with a sharp blow on the hammer. I think it was in the 70s that Ruger introduced the transfer bar in double action revolvers, so that the hammer could not contact the firing pin unless the tranfer bar was in place. As I remember it moved between the hammer and fp as the hammer fell, this transferring the impulse for hammer to firing pin to primer.

Ha

 

[Helen]

So, if I am intoxicated and fall down the stairs, which would they attribute my death to?

 

[Midpack]

Which reminds me of a small rant of mine.... the whole "breast cancer" thing. This is a real cottage industry. If you isolate breast cancer deaths, IIRC, it is not even in the top ten. Yet giving to it is de rigueur. To not give means you are a hearltess bastard - damn the statistics. Rant off.

I wondered where cancer was on the chart in post #1 based on NSC data (and I still don't see it), especially after seeing that the broad category "cancer" was #2 on the (also) NSC link in post #10.

I don't know much about the topic other than two spouses of friends in our lives have died of breast cancer, both far too young. Several friends/co-workers have died of other cancers, and others live with cancer in remission.

After spending less than 5 minutes on Google, I couldn't find much support for your POV...

The last five annual SEER reports show the following estimates of lifetime risk of breast cancer, all very close to a lifetime risk of 1 in 8:

12.7 percent for 2001 through 2003
12.3 percent for 2002 through 2004
12.0 percent for 2003 through 2005
12.1 percent for 2004 through 2006
12.4 percent for 2005 through 2007

Age 30 . . . . . . 0.44 percent (or 1 in 227)
Age 40 . . . . . . 1.47 percent (or 1 in 68)
Age 50 . . . . . . 2.38 percent (or 1 in 42)
Age 60 . . . . . . 3.56 percent (or 1 in 28)
Age 70 . . . . . . 3.82 percent (or 1 in 26)

Breast Cancer Risk in American Women - National Cancer Institute

 

[photoguy]

It's very odd that they don't list cancer and other diseases on the list that should surely be there based on rates. My guess is that being a "safety council" they wanted to focus more on deaths from preventable causes or maybe the article filtered out death causes to cover a bigger spectrum.

On the CDC list http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_06.pdf there are only 2 in the top ten that aren't diseases.