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US Death Rate
How many people die in the US each day? This question is not here to be morbid, but to give a sense of reality.
Assume a conveyor belt idea of life, where everybody dies at the same age.
Assume the population is constant.
1996 Figure: 6342 (Source The Disaster Center)
(Follow up question: What does this give for the global death rate?)
My Answer was 9500.
Assume:
1) Everyone lives to the age of 75 (rough average life expectancy)
2) There is the same number of people of each age (i.e. the same number of 5 year olds as 65 year olds, people move though life as though on a conveyer belt).
3) The population is constant. This implies that 1/75 of the population are dying each year.
4) Estimate the total population of the US at 260 million.
i.e. 260 million / 75 = 3466666 people die each year
365 days in a year.
Therefore 3466666/365 = 9500 people per day.
In these type of questions the same order of magnitude is a good answer. One reason why my answer is too high is probably because the population of the US is growing. My estimate of 9500 is 3100 a day too high which equals 1.1 million people a year or a growth rate of 0.4% a year.
Follow up Question: What is the global daily death rate?
Estimate the world population at 6 billion (6000 million) and 260 million in the US.
6342 * 6000 million / 260 million = 146,000 people per day.
There are clearly several "correct" answers to this question. If you have a different one (or a different question); e-mail it to WebMaster@IntellectualLoafing.com
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