Thursday, 1 June 2006
Death Rates in Iraq
On a day to day basis we are bombarded from the main stream media about how bad things are in Iraq. The violence is just overwhelming. So, let's take a look at the number of violent deaths from a couple different locations around the world to compare them with Iraq. According to the Wall Street Journal the number of violent deaths in Iraq are around 31.03 per 100,000 people per year.
Let's compare that to murder rates in other countries.
| Country | Murders per 100,0000 |
|---|---|
| Columbia | 61.8 |
| South Africa | 49.6 |
| Jamaica | 32.4 |
| Venezuela | 31.6 |
That means there are four countries that are more dangerous than Iraq for the average citizen. Even the socialist paradise of Venezuela has a higher violent death rate than Iraq. Going even farther we can compare the violent death rate in Iraq with some major cities in the U.S.
| City | Murders per 100,0000 |
|---|---|
| New Orleans | 51.3 |
| Washington DC | 45.9 |
| Detroit | 41.8 |
| Atlanta | 34.9 |
| St. Louis | 31.4 |
We find that there are five cities within the U.S. that are more dangerous for the average citizen than the average Iraqi. Hmmm, maybe things aren't going so bad in Iraq after all.
