Odds of Dying from a Falling Coconut

In the mid eighties, the British government asked scientists to calculate the likelihood people would die from various causes. The study was meant to convince people nuclear power was safe, and there were many ways to die that were statistically more common. Along the way, the scientists came to some interesting conclusions about how people the world over kick the bucket:

• An asteroid kills one person every 7,000 years. Imagine being that unlucky.
• You have a 1 in 300 million chance of getting killed by a shark, or die in a fairground accident. Go ahead, that roller coaster is super safe!
• The odds of getting killed by a falling coconut are slightly bigger: 1 in 250 million. Unless you live in Finland, then it’s 1 in 3,897,546,999,056,000. 
• Chances of dying in a plane crash: 1 in 11 million, although those odds go way down when you don’t fly.
• Getting killed by lightning: 1 in 10 million. Those are the same odds as getting killed by escaped radiation from a nuclear reactor. Except if you live near Chernobyl. 
• Dying in a terrorist attack: 1 in 9.3 million.
• Burnt by hot water: 1 in 5 million.
• 1 in 4.4 million: chance of a left-handed person dying from using a right-handed product.
• 1 in 3.5 million: snakebite.
• 1 in 3 million: food poisoning.
• 1 in 2 million: falling off a ladder.
• 1 in 685,000: drowning in the bathtub.
• 1 in 500,000: dying in a train wreck.
• 1 in 43,500: getting killed during work. Worse odds if your last name is Pastorelli and you live in Jersey.
• 1 in 8,000: dying in a car wreck.
• Dying from cancer: 1 in 5, while dying from a heart attack carries even worse odds: 1 in 2.5.