The facts of death - statistics, demographics

American Demographics, April, 1997 by Brad Edmondson

27. MANNER OF DEATH

About 93 out of 100 U.S. deaths are attributed to natural causes. Two are in motorvehicle accidents, two are in other kinds of accidents, one is a suicide, one a homicide, and one is murkily attributed to "symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions." As you might expect, nonnatural deaths happen mostly to young people. A majority of the 91,437 accident victims in IN were under age 45. Forty-eight percent of the 31,142 suicides were people under age 45. Over two-thirds of the 24,926 homicide victims were under age 34. And one-fifth of the 25,245 "ill-defined" deaths were babies under age 1. Infant deaths are sometimes mysterious, and so are some deaths at the other end. About 38 percent of ill-defined deaths are people aged or older.

29A. AUTOPSY

About 9 out of 100 deaths are followed by an autopsy. This includes virtually all murders, the majority of suicides, and almost half of accidents. It also includes some deaths with a murky cause: 1 in 8 from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and about 1 in 14 from Alzheimer's disease, blood poisoning, and heart disease.

30. CAUSE OF DEATH

Jane's immediate cause of death was heart disease, although shed already been weakened by cancer and a stroke. These have been the top-three killers in the U.S. for several decades. Together, they account for 62 percent of all U.S. deaths. But deaths from heart disease declined 11 percent between 1985 and 1995, according to preliminary NCHS data, even as the total number of deaths from all causes increased 11 percent. Deaths from cerebrovascular diseases increased just 3.3 percent. And although the number of cancer deaths increased 17 percent, the age-adjusted mortality rate from cancer declined 17 percent between 1991 and 1995.

Demographic shifts, medical advances, and changes in behavior can create rapid growth or decline in specific causes of death. The number of deaths from accidents has declined in the last decade, and so have deaths from chronic liver disease. The number of suicides has increased only 60 percent. But deaths from pneumonia and influenza have increased 24 percent, deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are up 40 percent, and deaths from diabetes have increased almost 60 percent. Also, in 1985, there were no deaths directly attributed to AIDS. In 1995, there were 42,506.

Future reductions in mortality will continue to be most rapid among the diseases that strike children, according to the SSA's middle-series projections. The projections assume the most rapid declines will be in deaths ascribed to birth defects and infancy diseases, and in deaths from cancer, respiratory diseases, diabetes, and accidents/suicide/homicide among children aged 14 and younger. Among working-age Americans (aged 15 to 64), the most rapid declines will be in deaths from vascular diseases, digestive diseases, cirrhosis of the liver, and heart disease. Mortality declines will be slowest for those aged 65 and older, but the fastest declines within the group are assumed for elderly deaths caused by vascular disease, heart disease and congenital malformations.