Here's one for the morbid amongst you: this visualization reveals how everyone across the world died during the entire 20th century. It make for interesting—and surprising—reading.


Perhaps most comforting—if you can call it that—is that the primary cause of death is non-communicable disease; the likes of heart disease and diabetes that, other than through research and application of science, we can do little to avoid. Still, humanity's own impact is felt starkly: there were 177 million murders and 131 million deaths through war, all of which could have been avoided.

You can download a high-res PDF copy of the visualization from Information is Beautiful right here. [Information is Beautiful via Guardian]