Death, Reasons, and Truths

I was exposed to a very enlightening graph today. You can find it here. It compares the number of deaths per every 100,000 people in 1900 and 2010. If you listen to any news at all, especially any reports about people dying, it would seem like we live in the worst time ever for death. That is far from the case.

In 1900, the leading cause of death was the flu and pneumonia.This seems crazy now, as we know this can be handled. Though, it's not all that crazy, as flu/pneumonia are still in the top ten of things that cause death these days. In 2010, about 16 people per 100,000 died this way. Still, the significance of death by flu has gone way down.

In 2010, the leading cause of death was heart disease, causing about 193 deaths per 100,000. Not surprised, you say? People are so fat, you say? Well, in 1900, heart disease still killed about 137 per 100,000. It was only the fourth leading cause of death back thing. The flu, TB, and gastrointestinal infections caused way more deaths.  We've done a lot to handle these issues though, so the heart disease is more common now. Still though, the numbers aren't that different.

The big difference is cancer. In 1900, cancer was only believed to be responsible for about 64 deaths per 100,000.  Now, this number may be off some, because it's not like the tests for cancer were all that great back then. We could have had a lot more cancer going on, but no one understood it. Though, considering that people had a higher chance of dying from so much other stuff before even getting a chance to get cancer, maybe the 64 is close. These days, cancer kills about 186 people per 100,000.

Accidental death accounts for about 38.2 deaths per 100,000 these days.  Accidents are the fifth leading cause of death.  In 1900, accidents were the seventh leading cause of death, but more people died from them. About 72 per 100,000 in fact. So while we have less people dying of accidents these days, because we've dealt with some of the other ways people die, its ranking has gone up.

The most interesting change in the ranking between 1900 and 2010 is suicide. In 1900, it didn't even make the top ten.  These days, it's about the tenth leading cause of why people die. For every 100,000 people, about 12 will take their own lives.   I'm not sure if this is because more people find reason to kill themselves than those in the past did or if it just shows us that people had so many other things trying to kill them that suicide didn't even rank. I'm thinking that maybe it's somewhere in between.

In the end, I find this chart pretty hopeful.  Yes, people are still dying. We, as mortal creatures, have a tendency to do that. However, the reasons we are dying have changed significantly.  Heart disease and cancer kill a lot of people, but we also know a lot about them. We can be tested and monitored if we are at risk for them.  Steps can usually be taken to keep them from killing us. This doesn't always work, but it's working better than it used to.

Most importantly, you'll notice that for every 100,000 people, less of died in 2010 than did in 1900. Our life expectancy may have declined slightly in recent years, but it's far better than it was in 1900. We have to be doing something right.

And, really, I wish that would be the part people focus on.  Instead of worrying about the fact that a lot of us still die, let's take a moment to be happy that less people are dying. Our ability to keep ourselves around is increasing. That's an impressive thing.