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Website Predicts Your Odds of Dying

Risk based on age, gender

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 27, 2009 10:14 AM CDT

(Newser) – Feeling morbid? A new website will give you your odds of dying in the next year, LiveScience reports. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon came up with DeathRiskRanking.com. Input some basic info—age, gender, place of residence—and the site spits out when and of what you're likely to die. "Most Americans don't have a particularly good understanding of their own mortality risks," a professor says.

The risk of death goes up exponentially each year, according the the site. A 20-year-old woman in the US has a 0.05% chance of dying in the next year, but by age 40 the odds are three times greater. By 80, the risk is 5%. Other notable findings: Men of all ages are more likely to die than women, and American blacks are more likely than whites to die of heart disease and cancer.

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Obesity-related death risks are higher in the United States than in Europe, researchers say. (©moultriecreek)

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At 80, the average U.S. woman still has a 95 percent chance of making it to her 81st birthday. - David Gerard, former professor
at Carnegie Mellon

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Website Predicts Your Odds of Dying