It’s not something about which we like to think, but death is part of life and what we leave behind can be an utter mess or it can be of comfort to our loved ones. All in all, unless you are in your mid-60s on, your chance of dying over the next year is somewhat limited, but it’s not nothing. While the average American has approximately a 0.75% to 0.80% chance of dying over the next year, depending on your age and health, that number may be lower. Lower yes, but not nearly as low as playing the lottery, though I suspect you would have guessed that, but yet people play the lottery every day. The chance of your home catching firing over the next year is 0.12%, yet I assume you carry fire insurance. And what about preparing your annual tax return and ensuring that your records are tight and ready, just in case you get audited. Well, the chance of getting audited sits at 0.30% or about 2.5 times less than your chance of dying. In other words, we plan and work on things that we see as potential issues, but when it comes to planning for our passing, we avoid making sure our loved ones are covered. It is easy to think and say we have tomorrow to work on it and that excuse is valid every day, until it isn’t.
The US death rate in 2020 was higher than normal, history shows us that. And while there may be some debate as to the accuracy of the Covid assigned deaths, it is clear it had an impact, there was a definite spike in the US death rate and we are beginning to see that number come down. Using CDC figures from 2021, it is estimated that approximately 0.78% of the entire US population died that year. The top five leading causes were heart disease, cancer, COVID, accidental and stroke.
If you are like me, you are probably thinking that the number one cause of accidental deaths is from automobile accidents, but you would be wrong. It’s actually a very sad result, according to the National Safety Council, at an annual rate of 30.7 people out of 100,000, poisoning is the number one accidental cause of death; mostly from drug overdoses. This is followed at 14.2 people out of 100,000 that die in auto accidents. Next is falling, at a rate of 13.5 people out of 100,000. After that, the numbers drop quite rapidly.
Finally, let’s take a look at death rates by age. Dying after a life well lived, is clearly a concept that many of us embrace. And yes, it is true that this may very well happen. The State of Michigan has put together death rates by age, and it is safe to assume that this would be generally applicable across the United States. Not included in the table to the left is the rate for those 85 years of age or older, whose chance of dying in the next year clocks in at an unsurprising 17.5%. What we do garner from the table is that once we make it to our first birthday our chance of dying young is greatly diminished. And then in the early years, it creeps up slowly. In our 40s, we have approximately a 0.50% chance of dying in the next year and then in our 50s that number is approximately a 1.0%, where it continues to rise more and more rapidly.
In the end, life sometimes is unplanned and facing these facts, we developed The Electronic Guardian. All of us here, love and treasure our friends and family, and thus, we are committed to making the post end of life less stressful for those we leave behind.