Introduction

For this project I found my data from NYC Open Data.This data includes the leading causes of death for different sexes and ethnicity.

Hypothesis

An overall trend I predict is that heart disease will be a popular leading cause of death. More specifically, I think men will have a higher rate of heart disease than women. In terms of ethnicity, I predict that Heart Disease is a common leading cause of death across the board.

This graph shows the Average Death Rate Over Time by Cause of Death. It shows that heart disease is overall a leading cause of death, as well as Cancer and all other causes. When looking at the year and the leading cause of death, there was a decline in heart disease death from 2008-2011. By 2019 heart disease death rate starts to rise.

This graph shows the Average Death Rate Over Time by Cause of Death and Race. Overall, I predicted that heart disease would be an overall trend for all ethnicities, but it turns out that Asian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic groups had a much lower rate of heart disease in comparison to White and Black people. Additionally, Cancer had higher death rates than Heart Disease in Asian and Pacific Islanders from 2009-2016.

This graph shows the Average Heart Disease Death Rate Over Time by Race. For every racial group, the death rate stayed consistent throughout all the years except for Non-Hispanics White which shows a noticeable decline in death rates over time.

This graph shows the Average Heart Disease Death Rate Over Time by Race and Gender. Overall, males had higher rates of death by heart disease except for Non-Hispanic Whites individuals. Non-Hispanic White females until 2017 had a higher death rate by heart disease than Non-Hispanic White males.

This graph shows the Average Heart Disease Death Rate Over Time by Gender. The difference in death rates stayed consistent between males and females, but in 2015 the gap widened.

This graph shows the Average Death Rate Over Time by Cause of Death and Gender. Looking at the increasing inequality in heart disease for females and males, let’s examine if any other leading causes of death show the same inequality.

This graph shows the Average Death Rate by Cause of Death and Gender. The leading three causes of death are Heart Disease, Cancer, and all other causes. A significant difference between male and females are the Intentional Self-Harm death rate. The graph shows that males have more deaths by Intentional Self-Harm compared to females.

This graph shows the same information as before but is formatted to display the most unequal leading causes of death. The top three most unequal causes of death for males are Homicide, Chronic Liver Disease, and Cancer. The top three most unequal causes of death for females are Septicemia, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Cerebrovascular Disease.

Conclusion

The results show that Heart Disease was the most prevalent in nearly every group except Asian and Pacific Islanders. Regarding gender, the leading cause of death for males and females was heart disease. The causes of death that affect men more were Homicides, Chronic Liver Disease, and Cancer. The top three most unequal causes of death for females are Septicemia, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Cerebrovascular Disease. In general, males seem to have higher rates across the board for different causes of death compared to females. One error that might have occurred when doing this project is that I found missing data between 2015 and 2018. I used linear interpolation to determine what those numbers might have been during those years. Although this was not the most accurate method, it was the best solution. To expand this project further, I could look at different data sets more specifically into health in New York City. It would be interesting to see the common trends of typical types of food consumption and see if there is any correlation between Heart Disease and the kinds of food people access.