The statistics on death are always more captivating than they should be. But examining the data doesn’t have to be the morbid pastime of a serial killer; the statistics can also provide some interesting insights into health, medicine, genetics, diet, and a whole bundle of social factors.
Nathan Yau, the brains behind the Flowing Data website, has developed an interactive graphic that visualizes how and when you are most likely to die. He gathered the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s database, which looked at the underlying causes of death in the United States between 1999 and 2014.
As Yau explains on the Flowing Data site:
“Enter your sex, race, and age. Each dot represents one of your simulated lives, and as each year passes, more of your simulated selves pass away. Color corresponds to cause of death, and the bars on the right keep track of the cumulative percentages. By the end, you're left with the chances that you will die of each cause.”
You can play around with the graphic and get more of Yau’s insights here.
