Misc
How Many People Die Each Day?
How Many People Die Each Day?
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, the media continues to rattle off statistics at full force.
However, without a frame of reference, numbers such as the death toll can be difficult to interpret. Mortalities attributed to the virus, for example, are often measured in the thousands of people per day globally—but is this number a little or a lot, relative to typical causes of death?
Today’s graphic uses data from Our World in Data to provide context with the total number of worldwide daily deaths. It also outlines how many people who die each day from specific causes.
Worldwide Deaths by Cause
Nearly 150,000 people die per day worldwide, based on the latest comprehensive research published in 2017. Which diseases are the most deadly, and how many lives do they take per day?
Here’s how many people die each day on average, sorted by cause:
Rank | Cause | Daily Deaths |
---|---|---|
#1 | Cardiovascular diseases | 48,742 |
#2 | Cancers | 26,181 |
#3 | Respiratory diseases | 10,724 |
#4 | Lower respiratory infections | 7,010 |
#5 | Dementia | 6,889 |
#6 | Digestive diseases | 6,514 |
#7 | Neonatal disorders | 4,887 |
#8 | Diarrheal diseases | 4,300 |
#9 | Diabetes | 3,753 |
#10 | Liver diseases | 3,624 |
#11 | Road injuries | 3,406 |
#12 | Kidney disease | 3,370 |
#13 | Tuberculosis | 3,243 |
#14 | HIV/AIDS | 2,615 |
#15 | Suicide | 2,175 |
#16 | Malaria | 1,698 |
#17 | Homicide | 1,111 |
#18 | Parkinson disease | 933 |
#19 | Drowning | 809 |
#20 | Meningitis | 789 |
#21 | Nutritional deficiencies | 740 |
#22 | Protein-energy malnutrition | 635 |
#23 | Maternal disorders | 531 |
#24 | Alcohol use disorders | 507 |
#25 | Drug use disorders | 456 |
#26 | Conflict | 355 |
#27 | Hepatitis | 346 |
#28 | Fire | 330 |
#29 | Poisonings | 198 |
#30 | Heat (hot and cold exposure) | 146 |
#31 | Terrorism | 72 |
#32 | Natural disasters | 26 |
Total Daily Deaths | 147,118 |
Cardiovascular diseases, or diseases of the heart and blood vessels, are the leading cause of death. However, their prominence is not reflected in our perceptions of death nor in the media.
While the death toll for HIV/AIDS peaked in 2004, it still affects many people today. The disease causes over 2,600 daily deaths on average.
Interestingly, terrorism and natural disasters cause very few deaths in relation to other causes. That said, these numbers can vary from day to day—and year to year—depending on the severity of each individual instance.
Total Daily Deaths by Country
On a national level, these statistics vary further. Below are the total deaths from all causes for selected countries, based on 2017 data.
China and India both see more than 25,000 total deaths per day, due to their large populations.
However, with 34.7 daily deaths per million people each day, Russia has the highest deaths proportional to population out of any of these countries.
Keeping Perspective
While these numbers help provide some context for the global scale of COVID-19 deaths, they do not offer a direct comparison.
The fact is that many of the aforementioned death rates are based on much larger and consistent sample sizes of data. On the flipside, since WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, daily confirmed deaths have fallen in a wide range between 272 and 10,520 per day—and there is no telling what could happen in the future.
On top of this variance, data on confirmed COVID-19 deaths has other quirks. For example, testing rates for the virus may vary between jurisdictions, and there have also been disagreements between authorities on how deaths should even be tallied in the first place. This makes getting an accurate picture surprisingly complicated.
While it’s impossible to know the true death toll of COVID-19, it is clear that in some countries daily deaths have reached rates 50% or higher than the historical average for periods of time:
Time, and further analysis, will be required to determine a more accurate COVID-19 death count.
Misc
How Hard Is It to Get Into an Ivy League School?
We detail the admission rates and average annual cost for Ivy League schools, as well as the median SAT scores required to be accepted.
How Hard Is It to Get Into an Ivy League School?
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Ivy League institutions are renowned worldwide for their academic excellence and long-standing traditions. But how hard is it to get into one of the top universities in the U.S.?
In this graphic, we detail the admission rates and average annual cost for Ivy League schools, as well as the median SAT scores required to be accepted. The data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics and was compiled by 24/7 Wall St.
Note that “average annual cost” represents the net price a student pays after subtracting the average value of grants and/or scholarships received.
Harvard is the Most Selective
The SAT is a standardized test commonly used for college admissions in the United States. It’s taken by high school juniors and seniors to assess their readiness for college-level academic work.
When comparing SAT scores, Harvard and Dartmouth are among the most challenging universities to gain admission to. The median SAT scores for their students are 760 for reading and writing and 790 for math. Still, Harvard has half the admission rate (3.2%) compared to Dartmouth (6.4%).
School | Admission rate (%) | SAT Score: Reading & Writing | SAT Score: Math | Avg Annual Cost* |
---|---|---|---|---|
Harvard University | 3.2 | 760 | 790 | $13,259 |
Columbia University | 3.9 | 750 | 780 | $12,836 |
Yale University | 4.6 | 760 | 780 | $16,341 |
Brown University | 5.1 | 760 | 780 | $26,308 |
Princeton University | 5.7 | 760 | 780 | $11,080 |
Dartmouth College | 6.4 | 760 | 790 | $33,023 |
University of Pennsylvania | 6.5 | 750 | 790 | $14,851 |
Cornell University | 7.5 | 750 | 780 | $29,011 |
*Costs after receiving federal financial aid.
Additionally, Dartmouth has the highest average annual cost at $33,000. Princeton has the lowest at $11,100.
While student debt has surged in the United States in recent years, hitting $1.73 trillion in 2023, the worth of obtaining a degree from any of the schools listed surpasses mere academics. This is evidenced by the substantial incomes earned by former students.
Harvard grads, for example, have the highest average starting salary in the country, at $91,700.
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