Do you ever lay awake at night and wonder: what day of the year am I most likely to die of natural causes?
Same.
Well, we have the answer. And it’s more gloomy than we expected.
According to research, people are most likely to die of natural causes on January 1.
A group of sociologists, led by Professor David Phillips at the University of California, studied tens of millions of death certificates over 25 years, and found a rise in death rates on Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day.
While it seems pretty intuitive that death rates are quite high around this period (it’s well-documented that accidental deaths from things like substance abuse and drink driving are more common during the holidays), this research actually demonstrated a spike in deaths from natural causes.