Unintentional Injury Leading Cause of Death For Many Age Groups
Each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control releases the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. As a wrongful death attorney in Riverside, California, I’m always keeping track of this data in order to analyze trends and the impact on our local community.
The latest data is from 2010, showing the leading causes of death by age group.
The leading cause for age groups 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-24, 35-34, and 35-44 was unintentional injury. This, of course, includes auto accidents, fall injuries, work injuries, etc., with fairly astounding numbers reported nationwide. Check out the number of deaths by unintentional injury for each age group:
- Less than 1: 1,110 (Fifth leading cause)
- 1-4: 1,394
- 5-9: 758
- 10-14: 885
- 15-24: 12,341
- 25-34: 14,573
- 35-44: 14,792
- 45-54: 19,667 (Third leading cause)
- 55-64: 14,023 (Fourth leading cause)
- 65 and older: 41,300 (Ninth leading cause)
In total, unintentional injury is the fifth leading cause of the death in the United States (as of 2010), with 120,859 fatalities.
One significant jump I noticed when reviewing this category was the serious rise in unintentional injury deaths from those aged 10-14 (885) to 15-24 (12,341). To me, this likely has to do with the driving age, as many teens get behind the wheel at age 15 or 16.
The leading cause of death across all age groups, in terms of quantity, was heart disease, with 597,689 deaths in 2010. Over 477,000 of the heart disease-related fatalities occurred in the 65 and older range, however.
This data, while sometimes morbid to review, gives us a better idea of the our nation’s greatest threats when it comes to our health and provides us with an opportunity to improve our healthcare system—and lifestyle—to help everyone enjoy a long and happy life.
If you or a loved one has been injured, take immediate steps to contact us. Give us a call at 951-682-6400, or visit our website at heitingnirwin.wpengine.com.
For more information or to see the complete set of statistics from 2010, visit the CDC website.
