Mexicans Dying

Excélsior has a long article today about a study of mortality around the nation from Inegi, an agency that studies demographic and geographic trends. The three most common causes of death (based on the 500,000 plus deaths in 2007) were chronic-degenerative diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases. Together, they accounted for more than 40 percent of deaths. Liver disease (6 percent of the total) stood out because it so heavily impacted one specific group: 15 percent of men between 30 and 59 who died in 2007 succumbed to liver disease. As much as violent crime worries Mexican policy-makers, it doesn’t make much of a dent in the overall mortality figures. It figures most prominently into the 15-29 male demographic, but at about 12 percent, it is the third most common cause of death behind auto accidents and other types of accidents (20 percent for each).