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Countries with the Highest Death Rate

In which countries do the highest percentage of citizens die each year?
Source: World Bank. 2017 data.
Quiz by Quizzology
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Last updated: October 24, 2019
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First submittedApril 19, 2014
Times taken23,229
Average score45.5%
Rating4.64
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%
Country
1.55
Bulgaria
1.48
Latvia
1.48
Serbia
1.47
Lesotho
1.45
Ukraine
1.42
Lithuania
1.35
Hungary
1.33
Romania
%
Country
1.30
Croatia
1.29
Georgia
1.29
Russia
1.27
Central African Republic
1.26
Belarus
1.23
Chad
1.21
Nigeria
%
Country
1.20
Sierra Leone
1.18
Estonia
1.16
Greece
1.15
Moldova
1.13
Germany
1.10
Somalia
1.08
Japan
+1
Level 69
May 23, 2014
I missed Germany, Croatia and Greece
+5
Level 33
Jun 19, 2014
Depressing
+16
Level 75
Jan 8, 2020
Demographics
+2
Level 74
Nov 14, 2017
I feel sorry for Africans... Was surprised to not see Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro here.
+11
Level 58
Oct 25, 2019
I was surprised to see they are mostly European countries.
+2
Level 68
Jan 8, 2020
that's because of obsolescence
+25
Level 59
Jan 31, 2020
Because European countries have a higher percentage of their populations that are of elderly age, so if makes sense that they will appear on this quiz.
+3
Level 73
Jun 17, 2021
They're old. Old people die.
+2
Level 50
Jan 13, 2024
It's because Europe has lots of old people, but the reason that Europe has lots of old people is that the population lives to a late age. So having a high death rate is not necessarily a bad thing or a reflection of low life expectancy.
+5
Level 57
Jan 9, 2020
why just africans lmao
+7
Level 54
Feb 2, 2023
because looking at an average the european and asian countries on this list have a much higher median age so the african countries are obviously on this for reasons other than high percentage of old population
+43
Level ∞
Oct 24, 2019
How much have things improved in Africa? A lot. If this quiz used data for the year 2000, all the countries on the list except one would be from Africa. Since then, the death rate in Sub-Saharan African has declined by 42%, due to higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and better treatments for HIV.
+18
Level 84
Oct 25, 2019
Lots of people hate on the guy, but cheers to President Bush for quietly doing a lot to help that along.
+19
Level 51
Jul 15, 2020
Of course! Cheers to a man who started a war with Afghanistan.
+1
Level 87
Jan 22, 2024
We don't "hate on him," rather we simply "hate him"

I'm nostalgic for a time when Dubya was a serious contender for worst president ever. Recent events have put that one to bed - Go America!

+11
Level 75
Jan 8, 2020
The South African win against big pharma concerning antiretrovirals was a big deal in the southern eight or so countries of the continent, where infection rates were in double digits for 15-49 year-olds. Why should we give Bush credit?
+1
Level 65
Jan 8, 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Emergency_Plan_for_AIDS_Relief
+1
Level 69
Jan 15, 2020
the life expectancy graph on that wikipedia page doesn't really support the argument that PEPFAR was a major factor as it already shows an upward trend in all those countries by 2003
+18
Level 85
Oct 24, 2019
Don't shed a tear for countries like Japan and Germany, which consistently rank near the top in quality of living. They are on this list simply because their fertility rates have dropped.
+14
Level 63
Jan 8, 2020
We shouldn't shed a tear because these countries aren't even having enough children to continue their people's own existence?

Wow, how compassionate of you.

+28
Level 51
Jan 8, 2020
Good job missing the point. He is saying their death rates are not from premature causes such as violence and disease. Also low fertility doesn't mean they will cease to exist, what?
+7
Level 61
Jan 8, 2020
No danger of German or Japanese people disappearing. Are you even serious?
+17
Level 78
Oct 24, 2019
It's interesting how the countries featured here are exactly both extremes of the spectrum of demographic "development." Either the death rate and birth rate are extremely high, or the death rate and birth rate are extremely low. Either way, all of these countries have death rates that are ~near-ish~ to their birth rates. I say ish, because every African country has at least begun to enter the second phase of demographic development, and death rates are currently plummeting in every sub-Saharan African country. (This is environmental science stuff - "race scientists" stay away)
+5
Level 73
Oct 25, 2019
I don't get this quizz. Every single country which seems obvious for me (Yemen, Syria, Mali, Niger...) doesn't work
+6
Level 75
Oct 25, 2019
A lot of the countries that appear / don't appear are because of their birth rates over the last couple of decades.

If a country had 100m population 20 years ago then there will be say, 15m people now in their last decade with ~1.5m dying per year = 1.5% of the original population. But if the birth rate has been high for those 20 years then the population might now be 200m so those 1.5m that die this year only constitutes 0.75% of the current population.

And conversely, if the birth rate had been very low for those 20 years then the current population may have dropped so those 15m people to die this year would represent more than 1.5% of the current population

+2
Level 68
Jan 8, 2020
that's because of obsolescence in richer countries, where not a lot of babies are born but a lot of older people die
+1
Level 35
Jan 25, 2022
Niger has a population growth rate of 3.8%
+2
Level 69
Oct 25, 2019
Why all these eastern European and Balkan countries?
+2
Level 75
Oct 25, 2019
See response to Sly67.

Plus, I'm not sure how they are counting the populations as many Easter Europeans, often the younger generations, have moved west in the last 30 years so populations in that part of the world have aged faster than elsewhere

+1
Level 86
Oct 30, 2019
Low birth rate is the main cause, I think.
+2
Level 74
Nov 3, 2019
In certain cases it is because of migration -- younger child-bearing aged economically-mobile folks leave to find opportunities elsewhere, and the remaining population demographics are skewed towards elderly folks who are more likely to kick the bucket.
+1
Level 50
Jan 8, 2020
Low birth rates, and lots of people have moved away. In Latvia and Lithuania there are also significant issues with alcohol abuse, meaning more people dying generally, and since lots of younger people have moved away, this skews the figures.
+1
Level 63
Jan 8, 2020
To old population. All European countries, Japan and Korea are there because of that. Hardly any of them have average age under 40(exept African one)
+1
Level 89
Oct 25, 2019
It's a simple dual pattern but tough to guess 100% at the same time.
+13
Level 87
Oct 25, 2019
This has to be the only quiz where Somalia ranks between Germany and Japan.
+2
Level 69
Nov 2, 2019
I am thoroughly confused by this quiz, and because my brain gets a bit obsessive when it gets confused, i see I have a long night of somewhat useless knowledge to acquire.
+4
Level 82
Jan 8, 2020
Declining birth rates, aging populations, poverty and high mortality rates.

If the country has all four of these, they're at the top of the list.

If they don't have the first two things, but they've got a lot of the last two things, they're mostly near the middle.

If they have lots of the first two things, but don't have the last two things, then they're mostly at or near the bottom of the list.

+1
Level 72
Nov 28, 2019
This is the first quiz I see with my country in first place. Before taking the quiz I was relatively sure that it'll be there. Seeing it pop next to the number 1 is depressing and yet understandable when you take the economical, political and demographic situation under consideration. And ,writing these words while living in Germany, I must admit I'm also part of the problem.
+6
Level 89
Jan 8, 2020
I thought for sure the Vatican would be here...
+1
Level 80
Oct 15, 2021
I suspect that's because most of the elderly men who die there are counted in the statistics of the countries in which they were born or to which they were assigned through their ministries. I might be completely wrong, though - maybe very few die within the limits of the see itself.
+1
Level 80
Jan 8, 2020
Missed three but probably the hardest quiz I've done...three minutes down and I had 3
+3
Level 45
Jan 8, 2020
That was one of the hardest quizzes I've ever taken on here. Mainly because I spent around 80% of the time trying African countries, and not trying any European ones!
+2
Level 45
Jan 8, 2020
If you are wondering why there are a lot of Eastern European countries in the list. The thing is that after the WWII those countries have seen baby-booms and a large portion of their population is born in the late 1940's and those people are now dying.
+1
Level 75
Jan 8, 2020
Not really - that would just mean the population jumped in the 40s. Assuming average birth and death rates from that generation onwards, the percentage dying per year now should be just about average (if anything slightly lower as there won't be as many people dying from the previous generation which was comparatively smaller, though the numbers from that generation may be negligible by now).

It's more to do with birth rates of more recent generations, migration, etc

+1
Level 56
Jan 8, 2020
Didn't expect to see so many european countries
+1
Level 67
May 20, 2020
Proud'a you world...stabbin each other ta deaf...*tear*
+1
Level 51
Dec 22, 2020
Glad the country where i'm from is not here
+1
Level 36
Mar 24, 2021
Was surprised that Bulgaria was TOP!
+1
Level 66
Oct 6, 2021
For many of these countries, like Bulgaria, many youth move out of the country, leaving behind the old generation. What usually happens to old people? Well, they die.

Also birth rate is extremely low, so not much population replenishment either, which means by each year that passes, the higher percent of these countries populations will die.

African countries like Chad and Sierra Leone is mostly due to lack of good healthcare. In Chad, almost all doctors are imported from France, cause Chad doesn't have the education system to educate doctors or other healthcare personnel.

+2
Level 69
Nov 1, 2021
Poor Eastern Bloc..
+1
Level 35
Oct 27, 2022
bulgaria? really??
+2
Level 71
Dec 20, 2022
This was hard. Is it countries with ongoing war? Only a couple of them. Countries with a high murder rate? No. Countries with a very old population? Very few. Countries with a low birth rate? Only a few. Extremely poor countries? Only a few.
+1
Level 60
Feb 15, 2023
18/22 purely from guessing. I must have type about 100 countries during the quiz.
+1
Level 58
Oct 19, 2023
I was just guessing a lot of poor african countries, but then out of frustration I guessed Ukraine and then realized something, still only managed to guess 7.
+1
Level 87
Jan 22, 2024
This quiz teaches us more about the misuse / misapplication of statistics than it does about people dying in various countries. Life expectancy and median age quizzes (which are directly related to standard of living) will be far more intuitively straightforward, while this metric highlights shrinking populations above all else.