Death
From CharityScorecard
Roughly 57 million people die each year. That's about 1% of the total world population.
Causes of death
| Deaths in 2002 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 57,029,000 | 100.00% | ################################################
| |
| Cause of death | Deaths | Portion | Graph | |
| Intentional | Suicide | 873,000 | 1.53% | |
| War | 172,000 | 0.30% | | |
| Murder, violence, etc. | 572,000 | 1.00% | | |
| Accidents | Car accidents | 1,192,000 | 2.09% | |
| Drowning | 382,000 | 0.67% | | |
| Falling | 392,000 | 0.69% | | |
| Fires | 312,000 | 0.55% | | |
| Poisoning (accidental) | 350,000 | 0.61% | | |
| Other accidents | 923,000 | 1.62% | | |
| Communicable diseases | Tuberculosis | 1,566,000 | 2.75% | |
| AIDS | 2,777,000 | 4.87% | | |
| Syphilis (and other STIs) | 180,000 | 0.32% | | |
| Diarrheal diseases | 1,798,000 | 3.15% | | |
| Measles and other childhood diseases | 1,124,000 | 1.97% | | |
| Malaria | 1,272,000 | 2.23% | | |
| Respiratory infections | 3,963,000 | 6.95% | | |
| Other communicable diseases | 2,187,000 | 3.83% | | |
| Pregnancy | Unsafe abortion | 77,000 | 0.14% | |
| Other pregnancy related deaths (of mothers) | 433,000 | 0.76% | | |
| Perinatal | Perinatal deaths (of children) | 2,462,000 | 4.32% | |
| Nutrition | Iron-deficiency and other nutritional | 485,000 | 0.85% | |
| Noncommunicable conditions | Cancer (and neoplasms) | 7,270,000 | 12.75% | |
| Diabetes | 988,000 | 1.73% | | |
| Alcoholism | 91,000 | 0.16% | | |
| Drug use | 86,000 | 0.15% | | |
| Heart disease (and cardiovascular) | 16,733,000 | 29.34% | | |
| Asthma and respiratory diseases | 3,702,000 | 6.49% | | |
| Digestive diseases | 1,968,000 | 3.45% | | |
| Birth defects and congenital problems | 493,000 | 0.86% | | |
| Other noncommunicable conditions | 2,206,000 | 3.87% | | |
| source: WHO The World Health Report 2004 | ||||
Interventions
| Low hanging fruit -- "easily" preventable deaths | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Solution | Deaths per Year | Portion | ################################################
|
| Banning cigarettes (cancer, heart disease, etc.) [1] | 5,000,000 | 8.77% | |
| Routine immunizations for children [2] | 2,200,000 | 3.86% | |
| Treating complications of pregnancy [3] | 510,000 | 0.89% | |
| Birth control (deaths resulting from unwanted pregnancies) [4] | 255,000 | 0.45% | |
| Clean water for children (and treating diarrhea) [5] | 1,400,000 | 2.45% | |
| Food and health care for children under 5 [6] | 9,200,000 | 16.13% | |
| Condoms, antiretroviral drugs, etc. | 2,777,000 | 4.87% | |
| Big-picture solutions -- difficult to prevent deaths | |||
| Solution | Deaths per Year | Portion | ################################################
|
| Halting global warming [7] | 150,000 | 0.26% | |
| Finding a cure for aging [8] | 36,500,000 | 64.00% | |
