Mortality Rate
No, we’re not talking about the frequency with which Rick & Morty episodes are aired…We’re talking mortality rate...which is about death and dying. Much more of a downer. The mortality rate is a rate that measures the number of deaths...either in general, or from something specific...per some bounded population...per unit of time.
Most often, mortality rates are the number of deaths per 1,000 people per year. Keeping the “per 1,000 people” and “per year” makes it easier to measure mortality rates against each other without having to do extra calculations to make the units equal. When working with bigger populations, it may be scaled up to 100,000 people per year.
For example, the maternal mortality rates of different nations show how many moms die before, during, or after childbirth per 100,000 live births from any cause related to pregnancy. In the U.S., the maternal mortality rate more than doubled, from 12 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 and 2000...to 28 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015.
Poland, Iceland, Greece, and Finland all boasted only 3 deaths per 100,000 in 2015…way better than Angola, Chad, and Kenya, which all had over 400 deaths per 100,000. We know that moms are going to keep popping out babies--but what about something that we clamp down on legally, like driving?
There are a couple ways we look at motor vehicle deaths per year in the US. One is deaths per the number of miles driven, and the other is deaths per the population. As society and technology have advanced, the number of miles Americans have been racking up has grown faster than the population rate. The general trend for both has been the direction we’d hope for: down, down, down.
In 1921, car-related deaths per 100-million vehicle miles traveled (or VMT) was just over 24. By 1950, we got that number down to just over 7, and in the 2010s just over 1. Now let’s look at the death rate in terms of the population rather than miles driven--the more “traditional” death rate. In 1921, car-related deaths per 100,000 people was just over 12. By 1950, that number unfortunately went up to above 21. Fortunately…it’s been in the 10-11 range in the 2010s. Big relief...as long as you’re not one of those 11.
We can see that the death rate in terms of miles has gone down sharply. The more miles we’ve driven in the US, the more sharply car-related deaths have dropped. In terms of population, the story is a little rockier. Car-related deaths were pretty up-and-down for awhile, until around the 1970s, when it started on a mostly-downward trend.
So, our population starts driving more--more miles per person--and more people aren’t dying--so that’s good.
If car-related deaths in 1921 were 12 per 100,000 people and today they're somewhere around 10 or 11 per 100,000, why haven’t there been more laws? Either slower speed limits... or perhaps laws outlawing driving altogether? Well, because society has decided that one car-related death per 10,000 people…or 1 car-related death per 100-million miles driven... is a price worth paying--at least to everyone but that one dude who got nailed by the texting teen.
Mortality rates live perpetually high in the minds of insurance companies whose lawyers are always invoked when a fatality occurs. Angry parents and spouses must find a way to sue the irresponsible...or maybe just unlucky...driver, so that they feel better about Morty...or Rick…not being around anymore. Besides insurance companies, who else uses mortality rates in their jobs?
The military.
Young people, mostly men--many who think “oh, it won’t be me who dies…”--get sent directly into gunfire. After 10,000 of them run into bullets, 8,000 of them return, and the mortality rate on the campaign is 20%.
Insurance companies, militaries, and groups advocating for social change--like fewer new moms dying--all use mortality rates.
The truth is...each of us will one day be a Morty. The question runs: On which data table will you be?
If you’re lucky, maybe one of the boring ones where you die when you’re super old...or maybe you’ll cryogenically freeze your head in case they ever figure out how to bring you back...