Dear Americans: What's the leading cause of death among the young?

[Strongbad]

I think it's mostly down to culture, but if I was to guess the risk factors (without looking at any peer review literature) I would harbour a guess that income inequality would be the largest contributing individual risk factor. I base that guess on the fact that of OECD nations I believe Japan has the lowest income inequality and as you can see above a very low homicide rate when compared with other developed countries.

Lower levels of health, welling, security and subjective happiness would also be contributing risk factors.

It's something to think about.

Poverty is definitely the biggest factor, and we have high concentrations of poverty in urban areas that are flush with guns and drugs all across the country. There are many other factors, however, that appear to be fueling the situation, like our gun culture, poor education, and the disenfranchisement of the inner-city youth. It's a complicated problem that needs to be addressed, but America doesn't seem to want to pay attention.

I don't have any sources, other than personal experience, but I think religion is a major contributing factor to the gun violence in the US. Something like 85% of the population define themselves as "religious", and the vast majority of them are Christian. Almost every Christian I know is a gun owner, and most of them have a cache of rifles and pistols in their homes, for "protection". When young people get their hands on guns, bad things happen. I'm willing to bet that most of the perpetrators of school shootings come from "good Christian" homes.