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Burning Man death rates – A short lesson in statistics

179 points · 243 comments · viraj_shah

  1. Aurornis · · focus · HN ↗
    Looking at population-level statistics, even adjusted for age, is useless. Going to burning man requires a level of health, energy, free time (not dealing with health issues), and freedom from chronic illnesses that make traveling to a desert a bad idea.

    Most people at high risk of random death are filtered out before they arrive.

    There are so many better comparisons that could have been chosen. Comparing Burning Man to outdoor music festivals would be so much more accurate.

    1. gosub100 · · focus · HN ↗
      Also, car accidents are probably in the top 5 causes of death for that demographic. And there's almost no driving at BM. But lots of driving to and from, so perhaps that smooths out the curve while keeping deaths off the event?
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