Nicholas D. Kristof on the number of American lives claimed in a typical year by various risks:

• 43,000 a year--automobiles


• 36,000 a year--flu & pneumonia


• 26,000 a year--guns


• 5,000 a year--food-borne illness


• 500,000 in an instant (possibly)--a single nuclear bomb

This needs a little context. According to the CDC, the 20 Leading Causes of Deaths (the cause of death is followed by the number of deaths, which is followed by the percentage of all deaths from the entire group) are:

• Heart Disease 699,597 29.3%


• Malignant Neoplasms 553,694 23.2%


• Cerebrovascular 163,426 6.8%


• Chronic Low. Respiratory Disease 122,971 5.1%


• Unintentional Injury 100,441 4.2%


• Diabetes Mellitus 71,369 3.0%


• Influenza & Pneumonia 61,730 2.6%


• Alzheimer's Disease 53,852 2.3%


• Nephritis 39,346 1.6%


• Septicemia 31,926 1.3%


• Suicide 30,607 1.3%


• Liver Disease 27,026 1.1%


• Homicide 19,944 0.8%


• Hypertension 19,250 0.8%


• Pneumonitis 17,289 0.7%


• Parkinson's Disease 16,544 0.7%


• Aortic Aneurysm 15,233 0.6%


• HIV 14,163 0.6%


• Atherosclerosis 14,084 0.6%


• Benign Neoplasms 13,625 0.6%


• All Others 302,318 12.7%

So he singles out Influenza & Pneumonia; but what about the other leading causes, which I'm guessing are linked to lifestyle choices like smoking, diet, and exercise (or lack thereof)?

The 20 Leading Causes of Injury Deaths are

• Unintentional MV Traffic 42,271 27.2%


• Suicide Firearm 16,863 10.8%


• Unintentional Fall 14,992 9.6%


• Unintentional Poisoning 14,053 9.0%


• Homicide Firearm 11,326 7.3%


• Unintentional Unspecified 7,192 4.6%


• Suicide Suffocation 6,198 4.0%


• Suicide Poisoning 5,188 3.3%


• Unintentional Suffocation 4,941 3.2%


• Unintentional Fire/burn 3,370 2.2%


• Unintentional Drowning 3,179 2.0%


• Homicide TransportationRelated 3,008 1.9%


• Adverse Effects 2,994 1.9%


• Undetermined Poisoning 2,899 1.9%


• Homicide Cut/pierce 1,966 1.3%


• Unintentional Other Transport 1,509 1.0%


• Homicide Unspecified 1,388 0.9%


• Unintentional Natural/ Environment 1,387 0.9%


• Unintentional Other Spec., classifiable 1,350 0.9%


• Unintentional Other Land Transport 1,290 0.8%


• All Others 8,138 5.2%

OK, about a quarter of injury deaths are traffic deaths, and if you add suicide by firearm together with homicide by firearm, it's a smidgen higher than that. Still, death by firearm would come about #10 on the list of all causes.

The 20 Leading Causes of Unintentional Injury Deaths are:

• Unintentional MV Traffic 42,271 42.1%


• Unintentional Fall 14,992 14.9%


• Unintentional Poisoning 14,053 14.0%


• Unintentional Unspecified 7,192 7.2%


• Unintentional Suffocation 4,941 4.9%


• Unintentional Fire/burn 3,370 3.4%


• Unintentional Drowning 3,179 3.2%


• Unintentional Other Transport 1,509 1.5%


• Unintentional Natural/ Environment 1,387 1.4%


• Unintentional Other Spec., classifiable 1,350 1.3%


• Unintentional Other Land Transport 1,290 1.3%


• Unintentional Pedestrian, Other 1,236 1.2%


• Unintentional Other Spec., NECN 1,034 1.0%


• Unintentional Struck by or Against 890 0.9%


• Unintentional Firearm 800 0.8%


• Unintentional Machinery 648 0.6%


• Unintentional Pedal cyclist, Other 206 0.2%


• Unintentional Cut/pierce 85 0.1%


• Unintentional Overexertion 8 0.0%

"Unintentional Overexertion"? Not a big cause, huh? (Sneer at those who virtually never exercise, or only exercise virtually).

Finally, a bonus: the 20 Leading Causes of Violence-Related Injury Deaths are:

• Suicide Firearm 16,863 33.1%


• Homicide Firearm 11,326 22.2%


• Suicide Suffocation 6,198 12.2%


• Suicide Poisoning 5,188 10.2%


• Homicide TransportationRelated 3,008 5.9%


• Homicide Cut/pierce 1,966 3.9%


• Homicide Unspecified 1,388 2.7%


• Homicide Other Spec., NECN 812 1.6%


• Suicide Fall 650 1.3%


• Homicide Suffocation 646 1.3%


• Suicide Cut/pierce 458 0.9%


• Suicide Drowning 339 0.7%


• Homicide Struck by or Against 330 0.6%


• Legal Int. Firearm 323 0.6%


• Suicide Other Spec., classifiable 278 0.5%


• Suicide Other Spec., NECN 246 0.5%


• Homicide Other Spec., classifiable 199 0.4%


• Suicide Fire/burn 148 0.3%


• Homicide Fire/burn 147 0.3%


• Suicide Unspecified 146 0.3%


• All Others 288 0.6%

The stats are for 2001, All Races, Both Sexes, Ages: 1-85, which is probably a little misleading, since not everyone is going to need to be worried about all of these. But of course the more you look into it, the more complicated it gets. Like if guns weren't available, would the suicide rate be much lower? And if so, by how much? And how many of the cause of death for old people are basically old age? And why doesn't the CDC have a food-borne illness category?

Update
Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000 ("Actual causes of death are defined as lifestyle and behavioral such as smoking and physical inactivity that contribute to this nation's leading killers including heart disease, cancer, and stroke." I can't help but feel "actual cause" is hardly the best term they could have chosen.)

• Tobacco 435,000 18.1%


• Poor Diet/Physical Inactivity 400,000 16.6%


• Alcohol consumption 85,000 3.5%


• Microbial agents (e.g., influenza, pneumonia) 75,000 3.1%


• Toxic agents (e.g., pollutants, asbestos) 55,000 2.3%


• Motor-vehicles 43,000 1.8%


• Firearms 29,000 1.2%


• Sexual behavior 20,000 0.8%


• Illicit drug use 17,000 0.7%

Robert J. Samuelson has some commentary at The Afflictions of Affluence. True, lots of Americans are afflicted by problems such as obesity, the "time squeeze", and "choice congestion", but these are basically self-inflicted. (Not one of them is a problem for me.)