Visualizing Data

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.