THIS interactive chart will predict HOW you’ll DIE

IT MAY be a touch morbid but a data expert has created a chart letting you know how you might kick the bucket.

 

A statistician has revealed a chart that may predict how you might die

 

Data expert Nathan Yau has come up with a simple answer to the eternally morbid question; ‘how will I die?’

The fascinating interactive tool is based on your sex, race and age and draws on data from death certificate database detailing how people died in the US between 1999 and 2014. 

You begin by entering your sex, race, and age in the top tool bar. Each dot then represents one of your simulated lives, and as each year passes, more of your simulated selves pass away.

 

Mr Yau recommends that you try shifting age down to zero and watch the rate of change.

 

Colour corresponds to cause of death and the bars on the right keep track of the cumulative percentages.

By the end, you're left with the chances that you will die of each cause. 

Mr Yau recommends that you try shifting age down to zero and watch the rate of change. One thing that you should notice is once you get past year one, it's less likely that you'll die in the next few decades. 

Writing on his website Mr Yau explains: “It's not until later years when the dots start to change colour much quicker. You couldn't see this in the normalised chart.

 

The test is based on probability, not a fixed average

 

"The main point, which is what you'd expect, is that mortality rate is much lower in the earlier years of life than in the older years. But, if you do die at a younger age, it's much more likely due to something external rather than a disease.

"You can also look at it the other way. Shift age to the older years, and let the simulations run. You're much more likely to die of a disease rather than something external. Shift past 80 years, and it's over 40 percent chance the cause will be circulatory, regardless of demographic group.

"This surprised me, because it seems like cancer would be the leading cause just going off general news. This is certainly true up to a certain age, but get past that and your heart can only keep going for so long."

Although figures come from US data, the causes of death fit in to categories published by the World Health Organisation and the statistician didn’t want the chart to be a crystal ball of data, and said: “There’s uncertainty built in at each year.” 

  

Although the tool is based on US data it's applicable to many similar countries

 

This is why cause of death is so chaotic between the ages of 30 and 40, but then settles more evenly as the years progress. Mr Yau engineered it so every year is stimulated on probabilities, not a fixed average. 

It’s for this reason that each time you try on the interactive tool, you’ll see a new array of colours and numbers.

Mr Yau has PHD in statistics from UCLA and aims to make data available and useful to those who are and aren't necessarily data experts. His other works include ‘Most Common Use of Time, By Age and Sex,’ ’A Day In the Life of Americans’ and other mortality calculators. Day In the Life of Americans’ and other mortality calculators.

You can take test here.