Wanna find out how the sweet release of death might finally come for you? Well, if you’re an American, a 2015 map revealing the most distinctive causes of death in each state might tell you!
In 2015, the American Center for Disease Control put out a map revealing, in their words, “a map showing the most distinctive causes of death in each state.” What does “most distinctive cause of death” actually mean? Essentially, it’s the cause of death that’s most overly represented in a state as compared to the national average.
Some of the findings are pretty much expected; living in coal mining states isn’t exactly great on your lungs, and there are a whole lot of people in the southern states dying of gun discharge (accidental or otherwise).
But some of the facts are pretty out there! Louisiana leads the nation in syphilis, Alaska’s killin’ it (pun absolutely intended) when it comes to air and water accidents, and New Mexico, Nevada, and Oregon have a whole bunch of people dying from the frankly terrifying-sounding “legal intervention.”
While the map is certainly interesting to the average layperson, it’s not especially helpful for scientists. Because the map is all about outliers (i.e. unusual causes of death), it’s not very helpful in tracking important national illness trends; just 11 deaths in Montana were enough to make it USA’s capital of deaths from “acute and rapidly progressive nephritic and nephrotic syndrome” (basically, kidney disease).
Hilariously, the CDC called their report “a robust conversation starter,” prompting the discerning reader to wonder who they’re having conversations with. Or, indeed, whether they’re having a lot of second conversations with people.
But, whether you’re in Alaska or Arkansas, Tennessee or Texas, New York State or Nebraska, one thing is certain; we all die alone!
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