|
Cause of Death |
Annual deaths |
|
Heart Disease |
7.2 million |
|
Cancer |
6.7 million |
|
Stroke |
5.5 million |
|
Accidental Injury |
5 million |
|
Motor Vehicle Accident |
1.2 million |
|
Drowning |
450,000 |
|
Falls |
290,000 |
|
Fire or smoke |
74,000 |
|
Falling off a ladder or scaffold |
9,000 |
|
Contact with hornets, wasps and bees |
1,200 |
|
Lightning Strike |
1,170 |
|
Dog attack |
570 |
|
Bitten by snake or reptile |
525 |
|
Flood |
100 |
|
Crocodile attack |
7 |
|
Bitten by rats |
5 |
|
Shark Attack (all species) |
4 |
Statistics adapted from World Health Organisation annual death statistics and data from National Centre for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau 2000.
Animal Attacks
|
Animal |
Fatalities per year |
|
Mosquito |
2,000,000 |
|
Venomous Snakes |
40,000 |
|
Scorpions |
5,000 |
|
Elephants |
500 |
|
Horses |
219 in the US[1] |
|
Hippo |
200[2] |
|
Crocodile or alligator |
200[3] |
|
Tigers |
100[4] |
|
Jellyfish |
100 |
|
Cape Buffalo |
80 |
|
Cows |
28.4 in the US[5] |
|
Bears |
7 in the US[6] |
|
Sharks |
4 |
[1] National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) estimated 105 deaths per year, but this would be low because many horse related injuries do not go to emergency rooms but to morgues (Bixby-Hammett, 1990). The figure 219 was determined using medical examiner figures and population (Bixby-Hammett, 1990).
[2] Source: http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/rumble/hippovcroc/hippovcroc.html
[3] Source: http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/rumble/hippovcroc/hippovcroc.html
[4] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPG/is_n12_v28/ai_16817878
[5]Langley, R.L. and Hunter, J.L. Occupational fatalities due to animal-related events. Wilderness and Environmental Medicine 12(3), pp. 168-174. Data averaged from 1992-1997.
[6] Number of people killed in the US in 2005, Wikipedia