This survey was inspired by the Guardian newspaper’s infographic ‘What we die of’ and is a collaboration between microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles, chief number cruncher Dr Paul Gardner and data visualisation extraordinaire Dr Mike Dickison. A blog post about this survey is on http://sciblogs.co.nz/infectious-thoughts/

1. What do Kiwis* die of? A survey.
*The inhabitants of New Zealand
rather than the flightless bird….
This survey was inspired by the Guardian newspaper’s infographic ‘What we die of’
and is a collaboration between microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles, chief number cruncher
Dr Paul Gardner and data visualisation extraordinaire Dr Mike Dickison.
Paul (@ppgardne) is a Royal Society of NZ Rutherford Discovery Fellow and Senior
Lecturer in Bioinformatics at the University of Canterbury's School of Biological
Sciences. He gets very excited about RNA. Mike (@adzebill) is a freelance information
designer with a PhD on the evolution of giant flightless birds. He quite likes ukuleles
too. Siouxsie (@SiouxsieW) is a Health Research Council of NZ Hercus Fellow at the
University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences. She is rather keen on
nasty bacteria and anything that glows in the dark.

2. The survey
In mid January 2013 we used Twitter, Facebook, SciBlogs
(http://bit.ly/Wh50MX) and email to entice over 360 people
to fill out our survey (http://svy.mk/XacD71) using the
SurveyMonkey website.
Like all online surveys, ours should not be considered
representative of the population of New Zealand, but rather
of people on social media who were happy
to fill out our survey.

3. Almost 30,000 people die in New Zealand each year. We are
interested to know what you think our biggest killers are. And
what do you think you will die of?
Please don’t cheat and google any of the answers, we want to
know what you THINK the answer is! All will be revealed on
http://sciblogs.co.nz/infectious-thoughts/.
Thanks for taking part!
Siouxsie (@SiouxsieW), Mike (@adzebill) & Paul (@ppgardne)

4. Q1. How many people in NZ do you think die of cancer
each year? (358 responses, 1 skipped Q)
Actual =
8,500
Number of survey participants
Number of deaths per year

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Q2. Which cancer do you think most people

6. Q3. How many people in NZ do you think die from circulatory
diseases (strokes, heart attacks, etc) each year?
(357 responses, 2 skipped Q)
Actual =
10,372
Number of survey participants
Number of deaths per year

7. Q4. Which of the following do you think more people in
NZ die of? (354 responses, 5 skipped Q)
Actual = 445
Number of survey participants
Actual = 510
Actual = 474
Melanoma Road
Suicide
(skin cancer) accidents

8. Q5. How many people in NZ do you think commit
suicide each year? (357 responses, 2 skipped Q)
Actual = 510
Number of survey participants
Number of deaths per year

9. Q6. How many people in NZ do you think die in traffic
accidents each year? (359 responses, 2 skipped Q)
Actual = 474
Number of survey participants
Number of deaths per year

10. Q7. What do you think you will die of?
Number of survey participants

11. Number of survey participants
Q8. Are you male or female?

12. Number of survey participants
Age
Q9. How old are you?