Death and Dying
Title: What are the leading causes of death in the U.S. and the world?
Information: This is an interesting question. The answer depends on the population group for which you want this statistic. Here are four major factors to consider: 1. Geographic location: are you interested in data for the world, your particular country, or a specific state? 2. Gender: leading causes of death may vary for males and females; 3. Age: the leading cause of death can change across different age groups. 4. Race/ethnicity: within the U.S., disparities exist between the various groups (i.e. Hispanic/Latino, African-American, white, multiracial, Alaska native, American Indian, Native Hawaiians, other Pacific Islanders, and Asian American. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are two important organizations that track and compile this data, often referred to as mortality data, or statistics. Keep in mind that there is usually a time lag. The most current results cited below are based on reports for 2001 and 2002 (estimated). The CDC and the National Center of Health Statistics publish "faststats AtoZ." According to this web site, the top 10 leading causes of death for all population groups in the United States in 2001,were: 1.) heart disease, 2.) cancer, 3.) stroke, 4.) chronic lower respiratory disease, 5.) accidents (unintentional injuries), 6.) diabetes, 7.) influenza/pneumonia, 8.) Alzheimer's disease, 9.) nephritis, nephritic syndrome, and necrosis (kidney-related) and 10.) septicemia (often called "blood poisoning"). Consult this page to find absolute numbers of deaths and more data: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm You can discover more about the causes of death for racial and ethnic population groups by going to the CDC's Health Topic "Leading Causes of Death" index at: http://www.cdc.gov/health/causes.htm You can also read the CDC's preliminary report for United States' mortality data in 2002 in the National Vital Statistics Report, Feb. 11, 2004: "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2002" by Kochanek and Smith. Look at Table B (page 4), and you will see that heart disease remains the leading killer in the U.S. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_13.pdf You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the above PDF file. It can be downloaded for free athttp://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. The two reports noted above also provide data for infant mortality. The preliminary report for 2002 states: "The leading cause of infant mortality, Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities, accounted for 20.2 percent of all infant deaths." In order to find more detailed information for specific geographic regions of the world, consult the World Health Organization (WHO). For an in-depth exploration of leading causes of death, you may wish to review "The World Health Report 2003: Shaping the Future." http://www.who.int/whr/2003/en/ Check out "Annex Table 2: Deaths by cause, sex and mortality stratum in WHO regions, estimates for 2002." If you do not have the expertise, you may need help interpreting these statistics. http://www.who.int/whr/2003/en/Annex2-en.pdf The WHO also provides information on infant deaths. Select the country for which you want data and then click on the year. Note that the data may have a time lag of several years. http://www3.who.int/whosis/mort/table2.cfm?path=whosis,mort,mort_table2&language=english. You can more find more statistics on the MedlinePlus web site. This website is published by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute's of Health. They list links to statistics on deaths related to substance abuse, as well as youth risk behaviors. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/deathanddying.html#statistics In addition, check out the following answer posted archived on the AskNSDL web site under Health/Death and Dying. "What is the number one killer in the United States?" On March 25, 2004, Susan S. responded to this question with a set of Web resources. She also gave directions on how to find this information, which is continually being updated. http://asknsdl.askvrd.org/index.asp?id=8635 I hope this information will be helpful to you. Be sure to check with your school or public librarian for more information. The AskNSDL Staff
Category: Death and Dying