Week 3: Visualizing Data
To compound on last week’s assignment when I discussed the top ten causes of death in
the United States, I wanted to investigate whether the regions of the United States had
differences in their leading causes of death for 2010 to 2020. There were some distinct
differences, but overall, the leading causes of death are the same no matter where in the country
a person lives. I initially wanted to compare the top causes of death in another country but found
that other countries measure causes of death in different ways than the United States, such as
breaking down cancer type rather than grouping them together under “malignant neoplasms.”
For the sake of a fair comparison, I have chosen to compare regions of the United States only.
Graphs/Charts
10 Leading Causes of Death Northeast Region 2010-2020
Heart Disease Malignant Neoplasms Unintentional Injury
Lower Resp. Disease Cerebrovascular Alzheimer’s
Diabetes Mellitus Flu & Pneumonia Nephritis
Septicemia
10 Leading Causes of Death Midwest Region 2010-2020
Heart Disease Malignant Neoplasms Lower Resp. Disease
Unintentional Injury Cerebrovascular Alzheimer’s
Diabetes Mellitus Nephritis Flu & Pneumonia
Suicide
10 Leading Causes of Death
South Region 2010-2020
Heart Disease Malignant Neoplasms Lower Resp. Disease
Unintentional Injury Cerebrovascular Alzheimer’s
Diabetes Mellitus Nephritis Flu & Pneumonia
Septicemia
Definitions
To process this data and give the data meaning, we must define some terms used in the
graphs. For starters, what exactly are the regions? Per the CDC (where this information comes
from), the Northeast is Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Midwest is Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
The South is Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Virginia, and West Virginia. Finally, the West is Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii,
Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Now that
we’ve defined the areas being studied, we should also discuss what each statistic covers. For
example, some of this data is broken down further. Unintentional injury includes motor vehicle
accidents, drug and alcohol overdoses, falls, burns, firearm accidents, bicyclist, and pedestrian
10 Leading Causes of Death West Region 2010-2020
Heart Disease Malignant Neoplasms Unintentional Injury
Lower Resp. Disease Cerebrovascular Alzheimer’s
Diabetes Mellitus Suicide Flu & Pneumonia
Liver Disease
accidents. Suicide, which is only found in the leading cause of death for one region, is broken
down into how it occurred. With the definitions clearly written out, we can start to make
conclusions and find trends in the data.
