In a new set of data just out from the CDC, culled from 2010, homicide is no longer one of the top 15 causes of death for Americans. This is the first time since 1965 that murder hasn't made the list, which the CDC has been publishing since 1949. More popular causes of death these days are things that affect the elderly, like chronic liver disease, Parkinson's disease, and pneumonitis (lung damage caused by people who have choked on their food or who have lost the ability to swallow).

Homicide made it as high as 10th on the list back in 1989 and the early 90s, when the spike was associated with higher crime rates connected to the crack trade. Now, one likely cause that it's dropped to 16th on the list is that the largest segment of our population is over 50 years old, and they're less likely to die from being shot than they are from a disease.

Also, experts cite greater protections of domestic violence victims and early intervention in those cases, which has prevented more of them from escalating to murder.

Surprisingly, at least to us, Americans are more likely to kill themselves these days than they are to die from high blood pressure, or Parkinson's, or getting killed by someone else.

Cancer and heart disease remain the top two killers, but there's some good news in all of this: death rates are dropping for five of the leading killers of people, including stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases,and flu/pneumonia; and you're pretty likely to live a good long time... life expectancy continues to rise, and it's now at 78 years and 8 months.

[AP]