Morbid Math: Fun for the Whole Family

The National Safety Council's 2002 statistics for your chances of falling victim to a variety of fun and fascinating fatal accidents is pretty good reading. Assuming the number of deaths caused by lightning hasn't changed significantly in the last 3 years, you have about a 1 in 56,439 lifetime chance of meeting your maker smelling like a cooked hot dog. "Accidentally" drinking yourself to death? 1 in 10,493. Being put to death by the state? 1 in 55,597. "Ignition or melting of nightware?" 1 in 286,537. Dog attack? 1 in 206,944.

One interesting statistic was basically your chances of "death by military service." Well, the 2002 numbers seemed a little low, so the management undertook a little research and number crunching to find out what an American's chances of dying in Iraq were last year. (Obviously, 2005 is still going, so the numbers would be harder to crunch and math gives you wrinkles.)

Methodology was as follows (borrowed from NSC methodology):

2004 estimated U.S. population: 296,800,000 (rough)
Divided by total number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq in 2004 (848)

Your chances of dying on the battlefield in Iraq last year were around 1 in 350,000. So the war is bad and all, but you were way more likely to die because your jammies caught fire or you teased the wrong dog.

Chance that Courtney Love will go back on drugs in the near future? 1 in 1.*

*Oops! Too late.
Courtney Love or Bette Midler? You be the judge...