According to
Jean Ziegler
Jean Ziegler (; born Hans Ziegler, 19 April 1934) is a Swiss former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris, and former vice-president of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He ...
(the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2000 to March 2008), mortality due to
malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...
accounted for 58% of the total mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 million people, all causes of death combined, die each year. In 2006, more than 36 million died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in
micronutrients
Micronutrients are essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for example, huma ...
".
Jean Ziegler
Jean Ziegler (; born Hans Ziegler, 19 April 1934) is a Swiss former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris, and former vice-president of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations Human Rights Council. He ...
, ''L'Empire de la honte'', Fayard, 2007 , p.130.
Of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds—100,000 per day—die of age-related causes.
In industrialized nations, the proportion is much higher, reaching 90%.
Economics
Scholars have stated that there is a significant relationship between a low standard of living that results from low income; and increased mortality rates. A low standard of living is more likely to result in malnutrition, which can make people more susceptible to disease and more likely to die from these diseases. A lower standard of living may lead to as a lack of hygiene and sanitation, increased exposure to and the spread of disease, and a lack of access to proper medical care and facilities. Poor health can in turn contribute to low and reduced incomes, which can create a loop known as the health-poverty trap. Indian economist and philosopher
Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economi ...
has stated that mortality rates can serve as an indicator of economic success and failure.
Historically, mortality rates have been adversely affected by short term price increases. Studies have shown that mortality rates increase at a rate concurrent with increases in
food prices
Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices have an impact on producers and consumers of food.
Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing ...
. These effects have a greater impact on vulnerable, lower-income populations than they do on populations with a higher standard of living.
In more recent times, higher mortality rates have been less tied to socio-economic levels within a given society, but have differed more between low and high-income countries. It is now found that national income, which is directly tied to standard of living within a country, is the largest factor in mortality rates being higher in low-income countries.
Preventable mortality
These rates are especially pronounced for children under 5 years old, particularly in lower-income, developing countries. These children have a much greater chance of dying of diseases that have become mostly preventable in higher-income parts of the world. More children die of malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhea, perinatal conditions, and measles in developing nations. Data shows that after the age of 5 these preventable causes level out between high and low-income countries.
See also
*
Biodemography
Biodemography is the science dealing with the integration of biological theory and demography.
Overview
Biodemography is a new branch of human (classical) demography concerned with understanding the complementary biological and demographic deter ...
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Compensation law of mortality The compensation law of mortality (or late-life mortality convergence) states that the relative differences in death rates between different populations of the same biological species decrease with age, because the higher initial death rates in disa ...
*
Demography
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
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Gompertz–Makeham law of mortality
The Gompertz–Makeham law states that the human death rate is the sum of an age-dependent component (the Gompertz function, named after Benjamin Gompertz), which increases exponentially with age and an age-independent component (the Makeham ter ...
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List of causes of death by rate
The following is a list of the causes of human deaths worldwide for different years arranged by their associated mortality rates. In 2002, there were about 57 million deaths. In 2005, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) using the I ...
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List of countries by birth rate
This article includes three versions of the list of countries by crude birth rate.
Methodology
Crude birth rate refers to the number of births over a given period divided by the person-years lived by the population over that period.
It is ex ...
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List of countries by death rate
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List of countries by life expectancy
Methodology
The life expectancy is shown separately for males and for females, as well as a combined figure. Several non- sovereign entities and territories are also included in this list.
The figures reflect the quality of healthcare in th ...
*
Maximum life span
Maximum life span (or, for humans, maximum reported age at death) is a measure of the maximum amount of time one or more members of a population have been observed to survive between birth and death. The term can also denote an estimate of the m ...
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Micromort
A micromort (from micro- and mortality) is a unit of risk defined as a one-in-a-million chance of death. Micromorts can be used to measure the riskiness of various day-to-day activities. A microprobability is a one-in-a million chance of some e ...
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Mortality displacement
In epidemiology, mortality displacement is the occurrence of deaths at an earlier time than they would have otherwise occurred, meaning the deaths are ''displaced'' from the future into the present. The displacement may be described as the resul ...
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Risk adjusted mortality rate
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Vital statistics
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Medical statistics
Medical statistics deals with applications of statistics to medicine and the health sciences, including epidemiology, public health, forensic medicine, and clinical research. Medical statistics has been a recognized branch of statistics in the Un ...
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Weekend effect
In healthcare, the weekend effect is the finding of a difference in mortality rate for patients admitted to hospital for treatment at the weekend compared to those admitted on a weekday. The effects of the weekend on patient outcomes has been a c ...
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World population
In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion in November 2022. It took over 200,000 years of human prehistory and history for th ...
References
Sources
Crude death rate (per 1,000 population)based on ''World Population Prospects The 2008 Revision'',
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
. Retrieved 22 June 2010
Rank Order – Death rate in ''CIA World Factbook''
Mortalityin ''The Medical Dictionary'', Medterms. Retrieved 22 June 2010
US Centers for Disease Control
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency, under the United S ...
Retrieved 22 June 2010
* Edmond Halley
''An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind''(1693)
External links
DeathRiskRankings: Calculates risk of dying in the next year using MicroMorts and displays risk rankings for up to 66 causes of deathData regarding death rates by age and cause in the United States (from Data360)Complex Emergency Database (CE-DAT): Mortality data from conflict-affected populations
Human Mortality Database: Historic mortality data from developed nations
Deaths this yearOUR WORLD IN DATA: Number of deaths per year, World
{{Authority control
Population
Demography
Epidemiology
Medical aspects of death
Actuarial science
Population ecology
Medical statistics
Temporal rates