It’s very much a cliché, but … we all die.
What we can be sure of is that our physical bodies age and die. Beyond that, no matter how certain I might think I am, nobody truly knows what happens. Many people have very full lives and die at ripe old ages, and, while it can be painful to say ‘goodbye’, we know it’s the right time for them to leave.
There is a line of thought that says whenever we die is the right time because of fate, karma, the will of God, or whatever. But many of us have known people we consider have died ‘before their time’ – from preventable diseases, accidents or intentionally.
For most of us these are premature deaths and hard to accept or understand.
Though death itself is inevitable, many of the causes of death are not.
The death test
Perhaps it’s not in the best possible taste, but I offer you a short test to start with.
Below is a list of 6 possible causes of premature death:
- Falling
- War
- Suicide
- Road Traffic Accidents
- Drowning
- Non war acts of violence
Your task (should you accept it) is to rank them in order from most fatalities to least.
For example, if you think ‘Drowning‘ kills more people than any of the other items, that goes at the top of your list. The answers are revealed a little further down, so you might want to stop reading until you’ve done the test.
And for those who really enjoy a challenge – guess how many people die annually worldwide from each cause.
The World Health Report – some figures
Before I reveal the answers I should just say a few words about where my figures come from as you may have access to more recent statistics.
I took the figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) ‘World Health Report – 2004.’ The figures are the combined worldwide figures from 2002 and are from Annex 2 of the report.
Apparently a total of just over 57 million people died in 2002 and the huge majority of those died from an illness or some kind of health failure. You could argue that all death is a health failure, but I hope you know what I mean! The research is a wonderland for any hypochondriac – so if you fall into that category, I invite you to study the tables in detail 
The study shows number of deaths from pretty much any disease or health failure you can imagine. Looking at those figures it’s clear (to me at any rate) that many millions of people die of health related reasons because of poverty and lack of access to decent health care.
These are preventable and, while I in no way want to imply they are unimportant, they are not what I want to look at here.
I’m focusing on deaths as a result of direct violence of some kind – either intentional or unintentional. So as you read on, please bear in mind that I’m talking about a relatively small proportion of fatalities – around 9% of the total.
So … how do we die?
|
1. Road Traffic Accidents |
1,192,000 |
| 2. Suicide |
873,000 |
| 3. Non war acts of violence |
559,000 |
| 4. Falling |
392,000 |
| 5. Drowning |
382,000 |
| 6. War |
172,000 |
How did you do on the test?
There are other causes listed in the report, with a total of 3,551,000 unintentionally and 1,618,000 intentionally violent deaths – around 9% of the total.
Some reactions
Rather than an in-depth analysis, I offer a few personal reactions – and I’d love to hear your own in the comments section.
1 Cars are deadly
For all the talk about gun control, the motor vehicle is the most lethal weapon we possess (though if you shoot a gun at someone you are clearly more likely to cause death or injury than if you get in a car!).
- How many more millions are injured?
- How come we got so careless with our driving?
- When did we start to build and buy such dangerous cars (I guess speed is the big factor here)?
2 Life is lonely and painful for many
I wasn’t surprised that traffic accidents were at the top of the list. I was horrified that suicide is number two. And given that suicide is something of a taboo subject, I’m wondering if the true figures might be even higher. The report doesn’t actually mention ‘suicide’ but describes it as ‘Self inflicted’ in the category of ‘Intentional deaths’. Is this a symptom of the taboo nature of suicide?
- How did we allow life to become so painful and meaningless to so many hundreds of thousands of people?
- Have our communities broken down so far that so many people feel isolated and alone?
- Why is this not talked about more in the mainstream?
3 War is not only about death
Clearly the number of deaths in war can change dramatically depending on the conflicts in any given year. 2002 was not, as I recall an especially war-rich year, but I’m still surprised by the small number. My impression (from the media space it receives) was that war is a much greater cause of death – clearly this impression is wrong.
Also just looking at the figures is misleading as the consequences of war are far wider and deeper than the direct casualties.
- How many die because of illness, poverty, relocation as a result of war?
- How do you measure the long term consequences – emotional, physical, economic?
4 Careless in the extreme
We are pretty careless, judging by the number of accidents we have. We die from falling, drowning, getting poisoned (350,000) and in fires (312,000).
- How do we balance being careful with living life to the full?
- Are we really aware of basic safety precautions around the home and on the street?
What do you think of these numbers? Have you been affected by any of these among your family, friends or colleagues?
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Wow. Thought provoking first thing in the morning. The only one I got correct was suicide at number 2. I was surprised at the results. I know we all die. It’s just something we do. We come to earth, we experience, we leave when we’re done. That’s my philosophy. I would prefer a world where there is as little suffering in that experience as possible. When we suffer, it would be a sweeter existence if we could all come to terms and understand that suffering is not necessary to the human experience. We either will understand this in our lifetime, or we won’t.
How I wish cars would be abolished! (I don’t particularly want fossil fuelled cars replaced by electric ones. I’d much prefer the main option to be public transport with this supplemented by private when necessary.) My partner and I use public as our main means of transport. But we live in a city so it’s easier for us than those who live other places. It does affect where we choose to live too.
Cars have become safer over the years. One way we insulate ourselves is by talking about ‘traffic accidents’. Somebody died, oops!
The suicide stats are almost certainly understated. How do you find out if someone committed suicide? Without a clear statement or a note it is difficult to know. How many of those single vehicle accidents should be included? My guess is that the cause is usually domestic abuse (physical and/or sexual). Now there’s a taboo for you.
Dealing with this stuff is difficult and so we try to ignore it. I think huge differences can be made by a little listening and simple acts of support. Every church could declare itself a place of refuge for those fleeing domestic violence (while working for reconciliation and change at the same time). Every term a social worker could go to each school and ask each child if they have been hit/touched sexually in a way they didn’t like. (Yes, mistakes will be made – are we willing to pay the price of an imperfect system?)
I doubt that many men are reporting domestic violence or sexual abuse yet (we are a generation or two behind women on this) so my guess is these figure are understated too. But this is just my impression from those I know.
Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t read THIS before my road trip! I might not’ve gone at all! If we add to that my clinical depression, I’d say the month of August was entirely risky for me!
Seriously, though… I lost a dear friend to a gunshot suicide and my dad to a “passive” suicide. I don’t know about all the accidental deaths, but I DO know that the time leading up to a suicide is excruciatingly horrible. I think I’d rather die in an accident… here one day, gone the next.
Perhaps I’ll start taking more road trips?
Ian, you’d better be writing about gumdrops and smiley faces next time… I don’t know if I can handle another one of these sobering topics.
In retrospect, it would have been better on more than one front if FDR had initiated a program of building high speed passenger trains instead of the interstate highway system…
@Sue – this strikes me as a really great philosophy to live by. And I agree … pain is part of life, but we create suffering and it doesn’t have to be that way.
@Evan – I also don’t own a car, mainly for convenience and environmental concern. I walk when I can and use public transport when I can’t. I agree that cars are safer – but only for those inside. And there are plenty of older and unsafe cars being driven in countries with less economic wealth.
Good points about abuse and domestic violence being a cause of suicide. I suspect the taboo nature of all these things makes it much harder to deal with.
@Lisis – I can’t promise a post about gumdrops, but I do agree this is not one of my more cheery articles. I’ll try to cheer things up before hitting you with another sobering topic.
@Paul – Better for the population as a whole, but then the motor and oil industries wouldn’t have been so profitable! And they are, from what I read, quite a powerful lobby in the US.
I was telling Lori recently that, left to my own devices, I’d probably write ALL my posts on my more depressed days. After all, when I wrote in journals it was usually to deal with depressive thoughts. But I’ve learned over time that it’s best to intersperse those among more uplifting topics… still, sometimes even the darkest thoughts bubble to the top and beg for expression.
Don’t worry about the gumdrops, you just write whatever your heart is pouring forth. I’ll be here either way.