Mortality

You obtain some figures from the Freeport Health Department on deaths last year from infant mortality, cancer, heart disease, AIDS and homicide. Other data will be released in about a week. Your editor wants the material now in a 300-word story. You have the total number of deaths for last year. You have death rates from the previous year. This means you will have to turn last year's totals into rates so that you can make a comparison of the death rates. Freeport's population is 654,000.

Here are the totals:

	Last Year (Total Deaths)	Previous Year (Death Rates)
Infant mortality	113	9.7
Cancer	1,561	228.7
Heart disease	3,828	572.0
AIDS	97	12.6
Homicide	116	14.8

Rates are figured as follows:

Deaths from disease: (disease toll / total population) X 100,000 = rate of death from disease

Death Rate: (total deaths / total population) X 1,000 = death rate

Infant mortality rate: (total deaths under 1 yr. / total live births) X 1, 000 = infant mortality rate total

As you can see, you will need to know the number of live births last year in order to figure the infant mortality rate for last year. That number was 10,598 live births. Here is how to figure last year's cancer death rates:

Cancer: (1,561 / 654,000) x 100,000 = 238.68 or 238.7

Using these guides, figure the rates for last year in all the categories, and write the story.


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