Angus deaton

Figure 7. 

Deaths of Despair for White Non-Hispanics with Less Than a Bachelor’s 

Degree, by Birth Cohort

Sources: National Vital Statistics System; authors’ calculations.

Deaths per 100,000

Deaths per 100,000

100

80

60

40

35

30

25

20

15

60

40

20

40

30

20

10

Drugs, alcohol, and suicide

Drugs and alcohol poisoning

Deaths per 100,000

Deaths per 100,000

Suicide

Alcohol-related liver diseases

1935

1940

1945

1950

1955

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

30

40

50

Age

60

30

40

50

Age

60

30

40

50

Age

60

30

40

50

Age

60

---

412

 

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2017

causes of death. For the two major causes of death in midlife—heart dis-

ease and cancer—the rate of mortality decline for age groups 45–49 and 

50–54 fell from 2 percent a year on average between 1990 and 1999 to 

1 percent a year between 2000 and 2014. The left panel of figure 8 presents  

heart disease mortality rates for U.S. WNHs and the comparison countries  

from 1989 to 2014. U.S. whites began the 1990s with mortality rates from  

heart disease that were high relative to other wealthy countries and, though  

rates continued to fall elsewhere, the rate of decline first slowed in the 

United States, and then stopped entirely between 2009 and 2015. With 

respect to cancer (right panel of figure 8), U.S. whites began the 1990s in 

the middle of the pack; again, if in less dramatic fashion, progress for U.S. 

whites slowed after 2000. The last two columns of table 2 show that, for  

both heart disease and cancer, U.S. whites age 50–54 had less than half the  

rate of decline observed for U.S. blacks and almost all the comparison 

countries for the period 1999–2014.

Figure 8. 

Heart Disease and Cancer Mortality by Country for Age 50–54, 1989–2014

Sources: National Vital Statistics System; Human Mortality Database; WHO Mortality Database; authors’ 

calculations. 

150

125

100

75

50

200

225

175

150

125

100

Deaths per 100,000

Deaths per 100,000