PhD student Avi Roy recently released a chart comparing the causes of death in the year 1900 and the year 2010. Both charts contain many of the same causes, however, there have been several major shifts in the past 114 years.
One of the biggest changes is the drop in deaths caused by infectious diseases. In 1900, it was the leading cause of deaths, being responsible for 53 percent of all deaths in the US. in 1900 to 3 percent in 2010. With such a large change over the course of just 100 years, what has caused such a massive drop?
There are a couple of major reasons. First sanitation levels have increased dramatically removing many vectors that diseases have used in the past. Along side this, immunization advances and the increased spread of immunizations has given major areas something of a herd immunity.
However, while the number of infections diseases has decreased, the number of people dying from heart disease and cancer has risen dramatically. While the number of deaths per capita has fallen overall, these two diseases have jumped to the top of the list for the deaths we do have. In 1900, the percentage of people who died due to heart disease was 12 percent, but in 2010, that number had risen to 33 percent. Cancer also rose as a cause of death, from 6 percent to 32 percent.
One thing to note about these charts, missing from both are deaths due to natural disasters and gun violence. Compared to the early 1900’s, there has been a 98 percent drop in the number of deaths due to natural disasters. Also, when looking at the number of firearm deaths, one has to keep in perspective that almost half of those in 2010 were from suicides.
