'The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between modern times and the past is the mastery of risk:
the notion that the future is more than a whim of the gods and that men and women are not passive before nature.'
—Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods (1996)
'What Newton learned entered the marrow of what we know without knowing how we know it.'
—James Gleick, Isaac Newton (2004)
Mortality trends for all causes of death:
age 35-69 years, United Kingdom
Legend: Any faint vertical lines which may be visible in the main plotting area indicate years in which the country changed its coding of causes of death to a
new version of the International Classification of Diseases.
Method: Mortality rates were calculated using data from the World Health Organization and the
United Nations Population Division,
then standardised for age (by taking unweighted averages of component rates) and smoothed (as weighted 3-year moving averages). For details, see the Info page.
Caution: Trends can reflect not only changes in disease occurrence or treatment, but also changes in how a cause of death is
defined or coded. (The same factors can also account for differences in mortality rates between different countries.) Those due to changes in definition or
coding are artefacts, and may be indicated here by dotted (or thin) lines.
But, many artefactual trends have no such indication.
Legend: Any faint vertical lines which may be visible in the main plotting area indicate years in which the country changed its coding of causes of death to a new version of the International Classification of Diseases.
Method: Mortality rates were calculated using data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Division, then standardised for age (by taking unweighted averages of component rates) and smoothed (as weighted 3-year moving averages). For details, see the Info page.
Caution: Trends can reflect not only changes in disease occurrence or treatment, but also changes in how a cause of death is defined or coded. (The same factors can also account for differences in mortality rates between different countries.) Those due to changes in definition or coding are artefacts, and may be indicated here by dotted (or thin) lines. But, many artefactual trends have no such indication.