Interactive model · NCHS mortality data

🩺 The Race Between Causes of Death, 1999 → 2016

Ten leading causes re-rank year by year as their death rates rise and fall. Choose the U.S. or any state, switch between age-adjusted rates and raw death counts, and press play.

Age-adjusted rate = deaths per 100,000, standardised to the U.S. 2000 age structure, so states with older populations don't look worse just for being older. Raw deaths show the burden in people.

Geography

Try this

United States, play: watch unintentional injuries pass stroke and CLRD around 2014–2016 and take the #3 spot.
West Virginia: injuries reach 89.7 per 100,000 by 2016, almost double the national rate.
Switch to Deaths: Alzheimer's climbs much faster in raw counts (44,536 → 116,103 nationally) as the population ages.