ABCDE
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What were the greatest causes of death in the 20th century, our "worst century"?
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War? Disease? Natural disasters?
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We gathered and examined mortality data from around the world - from disease to murder to mudslides - then calculated and visualised what killed the most people.
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Our key sources were the World Health Organisation and the OECD
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and other secondary sources
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Whever necessary we used a statistical regression algorithm which rolled established 21st century death rates back to the early 20th Century, adjusted for world population size and weighting for lifestyle changes and increases in lifespan.
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Inevitably we had to make some ballpark guesses. There is also some inevitable double-counting and overlaps. (we've marked where these might be on the main sheet)
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This is very much a living document so feel free to comment, correct & clarify.
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Email us at informationisbeautiful@gmail.com
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Or comment on the blog:
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http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/20th-century-death/
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Thank you
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David McCandless
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Mar 2013
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Sheets in this document
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Summary overviewhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aqe2P9sYhZ2ndDFON0Zidmh0ZHc1WGU4NHMzQ1AtMVE#gid=21
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Detailed breakdownhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aqe2P9sYhZ2ndDFON0Zidmh0ZHc1WGU4NHMzQ1AtMVE#gid=8
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credits
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concept & design & research: David McCandlesshttp://www.davidmccandless.com
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lead researcher: Miriam Quick
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additional research: Ella Hollowood, Dan Hampson, Pearl Doughty-White, Andrew Key
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regression algorithm: Laurin James
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Created for the Wellcome Collection exhibition "Death - A Self Portrait", November 2013
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http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/death-a-self-portrait.aspx
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