Reply #12: Violent Death Rate in Baghdad: 35 times Higher Than New York City

[Barrett808]

...However, comparing the violent death rate in a single city to one across an entire country is not a fair comparison - better to compare city to city, no?

Baghdad might be a good place to start. From the Washington Post:

"Baghdad's main morgue -- which handles only the remains of victims of violent or suspicious deaths, not including bombing victims -- issued 1,155 death certificates in April, the U.N. agency reported...

The morgue issued even more death certificates for killings in Baghdad in March -- 1,294, the U.N. report said. Most of the victims were shot to death."

The population of Baghdad is about 6 million. Using the morgue figures from the last two months, we can extrapolate to get 14,700 deaths per year. Using the magic of math, that works out to a sad 245 violent deaths per 100,000 people in Baghdad, per year.

So Baghdad's violent death rate is about five times that of our most dangerous city, New Orleans. Or 35 times higher than New York City (7.0 in 2004), a city with a similar population.

http://blueworksbetter.com/ViolentDeathRateBaghdad