Ever wondered whether the place where you're born has much to do with how you die? Apart from countries with high immortality rates, or very high HIV-infection rates, or regular cholera outbreaks, one would expect things to be pretty much the same in developed countries, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. Very wrong.

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The World Health Organisation regularly publishes statistics regarding leading causes of death in various countries. Their statistics are based on deaths per 100 000 people in specific countries. Some of the interesting facts that emerge from this are:

• If you lived in the Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary or Bulgaria, your chances would be extremely high to die of heart disease – much higher than in the United States.
• If you lived in France, Japan or Spain, chances are heart disease is not what would finally kill you. Their rates for this disease are of the lowest in developed countries.
• Austria and Hungary have an extremely high number of deaths resulting from cirrhosis of the liver. Russian statistics were unavailable.
• The countries with the highest number of deaths resulting from suicide, are Russia, Hungary, Finland, Austria and Switzerland.
• The United States, France and Australia have the lowest number of deaths resulting from stomach cancer.
• Lung cancer deaths are highest in Canada, the Czech Republic, the United States, Denmark, Hungary and Poland.
• Deaths resulting from breast cancer are highest in Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and Wales.
• If you lived in Denmark, England, Wales, Switzerland, Hungary or the Netherlands, your chances would be higher to die from bronchitis, emphysema and asthma-related complications.
• New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands have by far the lowest number of incidences of deaths resulting from chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis.

However, wanting to avoid dying from a certain disease is no reason to emigrate to one of these countries – immigrants to a new country often, at least for the first generation, take their old lifestyle and habits with them.

A study on cancer incidence among immigrants, revealed that for the first generation in the new country, the incidences of cancer mirrored those in their country of origin. For the next generation, it took on the pattern of the adopted country. So, it is cheaper to stay where you are, and change your lifestyle to a healthier one. (Susan Erasmus, Health24)

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