How Many People Die Each Minute?

Death is one thing we can all count on, but we try not to dwell on it. Although it is a certainty for everyone, it always seems to take us by surprise. It shouldn’t, because it is all around us — at an astonishing rate.

According to the World Health Organization, 55.3 million of your fellow humans leave this life each year. That amounts to 151,600 per day, 6,316 per hour, 105 per minute, or nearly 2 per second.

While that may be dreadful for those affected by each death, the planet isn’t overly concerned about running out of people any time soon. New humans show up at more than twice the death rate.

For the 56.4 million who exited in 2015, 54% chalked up the cause of death to one of the top ten killers:

1. Ischaemic heart disease: 8.76 million

2. Stroke: 6.24 million

3. Lower respiratory infection: 3.19 million

4. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 3.17 million

5. Trachea, bronchus and lung cancers: 1.69 million

6. Diabetes mellitus: 1.59 million

7. Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias: 1.54 million

8. Diarrhoeal diseases: 1.39 million

9. Tuberculosis: 1.37 million

10. Road injury: 1.34 million (76% were men and boys)

For a list of less common, yet more dramatic ways people enter into eternity, read here.

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