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Comment by Clanan | Hacker News Reader

Looks like the numbers are around 70/10,000 vs 50/10,000? I'm assuming they used the percentage for the clicks.

It doesn't look like the author accounted for reporting differences, which can have a huge impact. For example, U.S. babies born significantly pre-term (e.g. 20 weeks) who do not survive are counted as infant deaths, whereas in most other countries they're counted as stillbirths and don't affect infant mortality stats. Also the US has higher rates of infertility treatment-related deaths because such treatments result in twins and triplets with lower rates of survival.

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The whole thing is lacking necessary context. For instance, the stat on gun deaths sounds shocking, but this article doesn't tell me whether gun violence is a major cause of death in American teenagers, or whether it's 0.00084% of American teen deaths and 0.00001% everywhere else.

I agree. The gun commentary triggered my skepticism, but this is what really pushed me over the edge:

> And US teenagers are twice as likely to die in car accidents than their peers abroad.

As of 2013, the average driver in the UK drove 7,900 miles[1]. The average driver in the US drives 16,550 miles[2].

It should be no surprise that people who drive twice as much die twice as often while driving.

As for guns - I'm interested in figuring out what the actual per capita and absolute numbers are, but don't have time to dig that up at the moment; I know from experience that it's very difficult to find and verify information about "gun deaths" in the US. In the past I've found that anti-gun groups have lumped in people as old as 24 as "children", while pro-gun groups have excluded justifiable homicides including those occurring during law enforcement activities. I may come back to this, if anyone is interested and I have the time.

1: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28546589

2: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm

Came here to say exactly this. Thanks. Researched this years ago with our first child and discovered that most of the FUD about U.S. infant health care boiled down to honest reporting by the U.S.

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