Murder No Longer One of Top Causes of Death in U.S.

The crime rate in the United States has been dropping for more than a decade now, so much so that murder is no longer one of the top causes of death in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released its 2010 Top 15 death list, and for the first time since 1965 homicide is not on it. It was replaced in the final spot by a respiratory illness called pneumonitis, which is mostly seen in the elderly.

Heart disease and cancer remain in the top spots, responsible for nearly half of the 2.4 million deaths in the U.S. in 2010, reports the New York Daily News, but the death rate from those are dropping.

Here is the complete list:

1) Heart disease
2) Cancer
3) Chronic lower respiratory diseases
4) Stroke
5) Accidents
6) Alzheimer’s disease
7) Diabetes
8) Kidney disease
9) Influenza/Pneumonia
10) Suicide
11) Blood poisoning
12) Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
13) Hypertension
14) Parkinson’s disease
15) Pneumonitis