BISMARCK, ND ( KXNET ) — According to the Centers for Disease Control , the typical lifespan of an American has increased over the previous years. Unfortunately, tragic injuries and accidental deaths can cut these lives far shorter than one would hope… but what does this statistic look like in North Dakota, and how many years are lost due to these incidents?

To discover just how much life these incidents can take from the average American, injury law firm Bader Scott analyzed recent data from the CDC regarding deaths caused by injuries in 2022. After comparing the average age of death from an injury in each state to its typical life expectancy, it was determined that North Dakotans tend to lose the most years to fatal accidents — a statistic that is all the more concerning when one considers how many of the state’s industries tend to be somewhat dangerous in nature.

In addition to this information, the study noted that the average North Dakotan who dies from injury does so at the age of 37 years and 186 days old. This is not only less than half of the state’s expected lifespan of 78 years and 121 days, but also almost three years lower than the average age of injury-related fatalities across the US.

As opposed to these statistics, states like Louisiana, Rhode Island, and Hawaii are noted to lose the least number of years on average due to fatal injuries. West Virginia, in particular, loses a total of six years less than the national expectation — a monumental difference from even the other states in the bottom 50.

Curiously, the findings show that the deadliest of these incidents depends heavily on one’s age: accidental deaths (such as suffocation, drowning, or falling) are more common in the earliest or latest stages of life, the majority of fatal injuries among young to middle-age people — and likewise, the entire United States — come from motor vehicle (MV) traffic instances or cases of unintentional poisoning.

“Injuries can be unpredictable,” says Seth Bader of Bader-Scott in a press release, “and sometimes can be so severe they result in death. Deaths due to injuries usually happen younger than one’s life expectancy, too. This difference can be quantified by years of potential life lost, where the age at death is compared with life expectancy. We wanted to see which states had the highest average number of years of potential life lost to injuries, finding North Dakota had the highest, and West Virginia the lowest. The study also found the most common cause of injury-related deaths in each age category, finding accidental falls were the primary cause of injury-related death in people aged 65 and over, unintentional poisoning in people aged 20 to 64, motor vehicle crashes for five to 19-year-olds, drowning for one to four-year-olds, and unintentional suffocation for infants less than one year old.”

While there are many types of injuries that can result in reduced quality of life or death, it is always important to know the steps you can take to prevent them, as well as what to do if you do find yourself hurt in any situation. To learn more about these processes, visit the CDC’s Injury and Violence Prevention Center here .

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