Every year Americans die abroad and thanks to the State Department those deaths don’t go un-indexed. An article in the Chicago Tribune brought our attention to this State Department Web page, which tracks all non-natural deaths of Americans abroad.
This one-stop shop of morbid factoids makes it simple for users to discover not only the number of Americans who have died unnatural deaths (users can choose specific time periods for the program to index), but also how and where that person died. Whether it’s by homicide, drowning or the curious ‘other accident’, if you die overseas, the State Department will put you in its database.
Here are some disturbing but still interesting factoids:
Number of Americans who, between January 2009 – June 2009 (most current data) died by…
Drowning: 57
Other Accident: 63
Homicide: 96
Suicide: 56
Vehicle Accident: (Auto): 79, (motorcycle): 12, (other): 7, (bus): 10, (pedestrian): 6
Drug Related:8
Maritime Accident: 5
Air Accident: 10
Top 5 deadliest countries, by number of American non-natural deaths between January 2009 – June 2009 (most current data):
1. Mexico: 126 deaths
2. Costa Rica: 16 deaths
3. Philippines: 15 deaths
4. Germany: 15 deaths
5. Honduras: 14 deaths
Interesting! None of them seem all that surprising to me except for the Germany one. Guess it’s skiing and other mountain related injuries? I can certainly envision surfers and swimmers getting over their heads in Costa Rica and Honduras. Either way, it would be interesting to see how the figures change for the entire year.
to simply call them the “deadliest countries” is a bit unfair and misleading. more insight into those numbers should be considered before outright labeling them as such (location within the entire country, details of death..)
I assume these numbers don’t take into account certain “tours” of the middle east…
Filipino,
Thanks for reading my post.
I fear that you may not have finished reading the sentence you find so objectionable before you commented on it though.
The second half, which you didn’t mention in your comment, reads: “by number of American non-natural deaths…”.
This is a factual statement (based on the State Department data that I provided a link to) that is neither unfair nor misleading. If you follow that link it will tell you how each person died (and where) in each specific country.
You would have known that if you would have done some research yourself (and by research I mean clicking the link that was provided for you). But, since you and I both know that you aren’t going to do that, I will do it for you.
Since your user name is ‘filipino’ I will go out on a limb here and guess that you are insulted that Philippines was on that list. So, just for you, I will break down all of the info about the 15 American deaths in the Philippines and you can provide all the “insight” you’d like to each.
Of course this is something that any reader is able (and encouraged) to do, which is why I provided several links to the State Department website in the post. I just went and copied it just now. It…was…so…easy. But I digress.
Lapu-lapu, Cebu, Philippines: Suicide
Tabza, Cavite, Philippines: Homicide
Makati City, Philippines: Suicide
Clarkview, Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines: Suicide
Mabalacat, Pampanga, Philippines: Homicide
Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines: Vehicle Accident – Auto
Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines: Homicide
Angat, Bulacan, Philippines: Homicide
Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines: Vehicle Accident – Motorcycle
Lapu-lapu, Cebu, Philippines: Other Accident
Angeles City, Pampanga, Phillipines: Homicide
Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines: Homicide
Quezon City, Philippines: Suicide
Ususan, Taguig City, Philippines: Suicide
Makati City, Manila, Philippines: Suicide
I regret that there is not enough space on the Wend blog to dig into all the socio-economic factors that lead up to each and every one of these unfortunate deaths.
But the beauty of the internet is that someone like you can take a post like this and provide your own insights to it whenever you’d like – either in our comments section or in a blog post of your own somewhere. It’s all free. All you have to do is put out a little effort.
But I put in the effort for you here, so now all you have to do is just cut and paste the stats and dig in.
I look forward to reading your analysis of these statistics. If you are a professional writer you might even find some interesting stories that would be worth investigating – like why are so many Americans committing suicide in the Philippines, for example?
Or maybe you will just navigate to the next blog and find something to complain about there.
Sorry if i made my response in haste, but I DID click on the links prior to my response, read the original Chicago Tribune article and saw exactly what you posted above. I actually thank you for the post. I also don’t blame you for lumping me with the usual trolls by the tone of my knee-jerk response.
I am not at all refuting the data; I take issue with ‘deadliest countries’ wording. It evokes fear and thoughts of danger. Do you honestly expect the casual blog reader to go into the depths of research to see that it’s the 12th most populated country consisting of thousands of islands where there are plenty of locations where these incidents may not have occurred? That might help put things in a little better perspective. I’d bet they would more likely use this as a list of countries to cross off the list of places to visit.
Oh, and that reminds me of another gripe I have with the title of the post “Where American TRAVELERS Die..” At least the State Department site was careful to note ‘Most American citizens who die abroad were resident abroad..’
Does visiting a so-called ‘deadliest country’ mean that a visitor is any more likely to commit suicide or get into an auto accident than those not listed? I know you can’t vouch for Robert Payne’s response stating ‘None of them seem all that surprising to me’, but I highly doubt that his impression included the thought that if you go to a country like the Philippines you might commit suicide or get into a car accident, etc.
I am, and will continue to be a fan of this blog, but just wanted to give some feedback from someone who’s had it with people’s unfounded fears of having their heads chopped off if they travel to the Philippines, among other wild stories.