How do we die? Death trends in the U.S.

A 2012 article detailing how Americans have died over the years is gaining new attention after being reworked by a computer scientist. In the last 200 years, the biggest difference in how Americans die is the enormous decline of infectious diseases like pneumonia. Cancer, diabetes and heart disease have all now become major causes of death. Americans aren’t dying the way they used to. The data come from an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine, which combed through 200 years worth of its back issues to look into how Americans die. The article was originally published in 2012, but became a top post on Reddit this week after computer scientist Randy Olson posted a reworked version. The most visually striking difference is the enormous decline of infectious diseases (pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, etc). Advances in medicine and society have largely eradicated many of these diseases that were an overwhelming cause of...