How Many Of Y'all Die Each Day?

visualcapitalist |  As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, the media continues to rattle off statistics at full force.

However, without a frame of reference, numbers such as the death toll can be difficult to interpret. Mortalities attributed to the virus, for example, are often measured in the thousands of people per day globally—but is this number a little or a lot, relative to typical causes of death?

Today’s graphic uses data from Our World in Data to provide context with the total number of worldwide daily deaths. It also outlines how many people who die each day from specific causes.

Worldwide Deaths by Cause

Nearly 150,000 people die per day worldwide, based on the latest comprehensive research published in 2017. Which diseases are the most deadly, and how many lives do they take per day?

Here’s how many people die each day on average, sorted by cause:

Rank	Cause	Daily Deaths
#1	Cardiovascular diseases	48,742
#2	Cancers	26,181
#3	Respiratory diseases	10,724
#4	Lower respiratory infections	7,010
#5	Dementia	6,889
#6	Digestive diseases	6,514
#7	Neonatal disorders	4,887
#8	Diarrheal diseases	4,300
#9	Diabetes	3,753
#10	Liver diseases	3,624
	Total Daily Deaths	147,118

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Cardiovascular diseases, or diseases of the heart and blood vessels, are the leading cause of death. However, their prominence is not reflected in our perceptions of death nor in the media.

While the death toll for HIV/AIDS peaked in 2004, it still affects many people today. The disease causes over 2,600 daily deaths on average.

Interestingly, terrorism and natural disasters cause very few deaths in relation to other causes. That said, these numbers can vary from day to day—and year to year—depending on the severity of each individual instance.