As an American, the chances of you dying while traveling abroad are extremely slim. That said, Americans do die when traveling abroad, and there are discernible patterns across countries. That’s why someone plotted how American tourists die abroad on a world map, so that we can begin to see what type of death is most likely in each country across the world.
The aforementioned map below has been put together by Bloomberg Business, and it’s tracked deaths of Americans traveling abroad the last decade. It’s been put it together in a way that shows the most likely cause of death by an American traveling in any given country, ad gives you an idea on which countries you should avoid for any given reason.
Some major takeaways from the map:
1) Contrary to what Donald J. Trump is spewing in his press conferences, American deaths by the hands of Mexicans are coming inside of Mexico. This data can easily be taken out of context to show that American tourists are being targeted by Mexicans inside of Mexico, but the morbid reality is that the overwhelming preponderance of American deaths in Mexico have been collateral damage due to Mexico’s decades-long drug wars between rival cartels.
2) Stay away from Afghanistan and Iraq for the purposes of tourism, unless of course you’re looking to get beheaded or blown up in an act of terrorism.
3) Only ~200 Americans have died from overdosing on drugs abroad in the past decade. This number is SHOCKING when you consider that ‘drug tourism’ exists, and there’s a bar in La Paz, Bolivia where you can buy cocaine out of straws from behind the bar.
All that aside, when you take into consideration that 60 million Americans traveled abroad last year and only ~10,000 American tourists have died abroad in the past 10 years, there’s really NOTHING to be afraid of when traveling abroad…As long as you keep your wits about you and are respectful of the local laws and customs, you’re fine.