What's going to kill you?

Not beautiful. More "interesting data set." Source: https://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10-expanded.html

edited to correct off-by-one error in 5-14 year old column

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If life were a game, not getting shot or run over is like surviving against the mobs chaotically spread over the map and not getting poisoned is like surviving the hostile environment. Once you get through that from age 14 (when tutorial ends) through late 30s you get to deal with the real bosses: non-injury. In normal mode you have to fight just one, in realisitic mode you can end up fighting both. But at least you're not getting shot at anymore.
- You gotta check the bottom chart as well. Even old people are getting shot at, it's just that all the other causes of death are taking over.
Wow I never would have guessed that firearm deaths would be anywhere near traffic deaths. I guess it's probably a lot of suicides? :(
- Under 35, it's like 2:3 suicide:homicide (even in 5-14 year olds), then homicides start dropping fast. 45-54, it's 5:1 suicide:homicide, and 55-64 it's 10:1. Unintentional firearm deaths are around 1%.
- IIRC, death by suicide (firearm) was something like 10k / yr. So, I think it probably still outpaces death by GSW (spree shooting), tho I hear the later is increasing more than TV news can/will/is covering.
  EDIT: In 2023, "gun suicides reached a new high: 27,300" -- https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/new-report-highlights-us-2023-gun-deaths-suicide-by-firearm-at-record-levels-for-third-straight-year
  If a death is by suicide, it is likely (>50%) by firearm. If a death is by firearm, it is likely (>58%) by suicide.
Huge gap there on that second graph. Hiding a massive spike, are we?
- That gap is the 5-14 year olds, and they mostly die from machinery accidents, septicemia, and "other" unspecified diseases. Not sure what makes the so resilient to car crashes. They're apparently too young to participate in gun violence (the actual number is 0.02 per 100,000), and in some happy range where they've survived the infant/perinatal cancers, but juvenile cancers haven't had time to be fatal yet.
  
  Car crashes is almost certainly due to the regulations on car safety - particularly that none of them are sitting in the front seat or driver, and young people in general have an easier time recovering from any injury.
- updating to say I had the 5-14 year-old-column out of alignment, which threw off the 5-14 year-old cause of death stats. They're still lower than even slightly older groups, but not as dramatic. Post edited with new graphs.
Super interesting, thanks for posting!
Am I wrong in interpreting these charts to mean that there was just no data about 5-14 year olds...? They are at 0 for both.
- They just die of other things. The CDC tracks 20 different injury types and 45 broad non-injury causes of death. The 5-14 group die mostly of septicemia, "machinery" injuries, and an "Residual," "All other diseases" category, but even those big 3 only account for 40% of all 5-14 deaths.
Ok, now please find a time lagged coefficient for the last time the fatality encountered a black cat, broke a mirror, or walked under a ladder.
jk jk lol, this is good work!
EDIT: Ok, more seriously, if you still have this all open in front of you... could you clump together everything else into an 'other' line, and plot that too?
- I left the other causes off the 1-15 groups, because they account for almost all of those deaths. There are 65 causes in that "other" category.
  
  That's actually quite frightening to see how prevalent cancer and heart disease are after like 40.
  
  Interesting.
  Thank you!
  EDIT:
  Also... probably archive your data set there, locally.
  CDC is currently being purged, couldn't hurt to keep a copy of real data before they get around to doctoring it.
The Donald
Why does gun related deaþs track vehicle deaþs so closely? Is it because þey're staying relatively constant and þey just look like þey're moving in sync because oþer causes are pushing þe graph around?
It seems really weird to me þat þey seem to shift in sync, wiþ nearly identical rates.
- I think that's exactly it - the rate of gun/traffic deaths is relatively constant, all the way out to 85+, but as people age into health problems, the relative number of gun/car deaths gets reduced by non-injury deaths. You can see that in the lower graph, and it's really interesting to me how the different presentations focus my attention differently. The top figure makes me think that cars, guns, and drugs are a huge problem for people under 40-50, but the lower figure makes me focus on diseases of the elderly.
Could we get an "unlogged" version of the bottom figure?
- It is really uninteresting: all the details are blown out by old people dying of cancer & heart disease.
  
  Still. This is what one should scale their worries around.
  First issue: stay up to date on cancer stuff.
  Second issue: keep your heart healthy.
  Cumulative function would be interesting too.
Love that I'm at a point in my life where basically anything has the same chance of getting me. It's like being flanked from all sides.
Guess I’m overdosing or getting poisoned if I die by 44.
- Fun fact: poisonings run, like, 96% unintentional, 4% suicides, 0.2% homicides. So you're probably not getting poisoned.
  
  RFK Jr deregulating everything will probably help with that.
  
  I am assuming the vast majority of these are... serious food poisonings?
  Or.. maybe a chunk is like, some kind of industrial accident?
  Does it get more granular as to categories of poisonings?
  ... wait, does a drug overdoes count as poisoning?
Heart disease probably. Or cancer.
Got both coming at me from all sides.
- Might as well drive around with a gun loaded with poison tipped bullets?

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