Heart Disease Deaths in the Great Lakes Region

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the USA, accounting for more than 659,000 deaths in 2019, or approximately 23% of all deaths in the United States that year.  Advancements in medical knowledge have materially lowered the heart disease death rate over the past twenty years. By 2019 the death rate from heart disease had dropped to 200.8 deaths per 100,000 population, down from its 1999 level of 259.9 deaths per 100,000 population.  Unfortunately, the heart disease death rate in the U.S. has been creeping back up since the middle of the last decade.  While the five-state Great Lakes region has likewise seen its heart disease death rate trend downward in the past two decades, its experience has been less favorable than the nation as a whole. The region's 2019 death rate of 228.5 deaths per 100,000 population was only down about 18% from its 1999 level, in contrast to the nearly 23% decline at the national level.  A deeper examination of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, shows the following about the trend in heart disease deaths in the Great Lakes region:

Heart Disease Deaths in the Great Lakes Region

Area/Deaths	1999	2009	2019
IL	33,387	24,931	25,690
IN	16,661	13,509	14,555
MI	27,693	23,099	25,547
OH	33,192	25,453	29,160
WI	13,827	10,834	12,241
Region	124,760	97,826	107,193
U.S.	725,192	599,413	659,041
Area/Death Rate*	1999	2009	2019
IL	270.1	194.8	202.7
IN	275.6	209.1	216.2
MI	279.8	233.3	255.8
OH	292.8	220.8	249.5
WI	259.3	191.1	210.2
Region	277.4	211.0	228.5
U.S.	259.9	195.4	200.8

(*) number of heart disease deaths per 100,000 population

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2019 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2020. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2019, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on June 9, 2021

Massage Therapist Pay in the Southeastern U.S.

Data recently published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that, as of May 2020, there were over 85,000 massage therapists working in the United States.  Almost 20,000 of those employed as massage therapists lived in the twelve-state Southeastern region of the U.S.  An examination of the BLS data reveals the Southeastern U.S. to be a very weak one for massage therapist pay, with Kentucky being the only state in the region with an average massage therapist annual mean wage level that topped the national average.  Moreover, the region was home to five of the ten worst states in the U.S. for massage therapist annual mean wages.  A deeper look at BLS data from May 2020 reveals the following about massage therapist pay in the Southeastern U.S.:

Massage Therapist Pay in the Southeastern U.S.

State	# Employed	Annual Mean Wages	Wage Rank*
AL	410	$36,020	44th
AR	390	$46,020	25th
FL	6,450	$40,530	40th
GA	2,740	$33,850	46th
KY	740	$48,450	18th
LA	500	$31,470	49th
MS	180	$33,700	47th
NC	2,380	$42,750	33rd
SC	1,600	$36,910	43rd
TN	2,000	$45,430	28th
VA	2,450	$42,510	34th
WV	150	$44,640	31st
U.S.	85,040	$47,350	-------

(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on June 5, 2021