Surely its not just me.....although many folks make it to a ripe old age in Cambodia, there is clearly a disproportionate number of 30/40/50 somethings who succumb to the grim reaper earlier than intended compared to in the west (or even in Thailand or Vietnam).

I am not totally convinced it's simply down to drugs.
Is it other lifestyle factors - alcohol? awful eating habits of burgers and pizza every night? sedentary habits?
Is it environmental? (water, food and air contaminated somehow?)
Are people who move to Cambodia mentally of a profile who are more likely to take risks?
Could there actually be a massive homicide rate like in central america, murders passed off as 'suicides' or 'heart attacks'

Keen to hear thoughts, as I have NFI.

Great country IMO. Just scares the sht out of me when I hear some stories.

I'm sure 50 cent beer plays a role, as does the pharmacies eager to sell whatever, and the crazy traffic where it's fully acceptable to drive drunk as long as you try not to kill anyone. The general idea among foreigners that you can do whatever you want as long as you have some money in your pocket probably contributes as well. It's a risk taking country. Many of us would never do the shit we do here back in our own countries. Starting with taking a taxi that stuffs 5 people in the backseat...

La Quenta wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 7:30 pm Surely its not just me.....although many folks make it to a ripe old age in Cambodia, there is clearly a disproportionate number of 30/40/50 somethings who succumb to the grim reaper earlier than intended compared to in the west (or even in Thailand or Vietnam).

I am not totally convinced it's simply down to drugs.
Is it other lifestyle factors - alcohol? awful eating habits of burgers and pizza every night? sedentary habits?
Is it environmental? (water, food and air contaminated somehow?)
Are people who move to Cambodia mentally of a profile who are more likely to take risks?
Could there actually be a massive homicide rate like in central america, murders passed off as 'suicides' or 'heart attacks'

Yes, all of the above.

Plus slippery tiles, dangerous drivers and lack of a modern inclusive/affordable health service

Local people die young from:
Liver flukes from the salt pickled rice field crabs leading to cirrhosis/liver cancer, TB, heart disease, pneumonia

Toss in old mines, bombs, grenades degrading in fields being plowed..kids tossing a live grenade to their pop he found while digging taters...
TB...worms..
The constant tainted rice 'whisky'...
But, I think as a whole they are some of the toughest motherfucking survivors I have encountered.
My second day here 4 years ago a half of a man was dragging his way around the street near the National Museum..He had a basket of paperbacks...I gave him $5 and he insisted I take a book....I grabbed my first Khmer/English dictionary..
Not wearing helmets ...or wearing cheap chinese plastic pieces of shit.

Does anyone have any figures as to what degree all this is actually the case, as opposed to a difference in how news is reported?

The one I found easily enough was traffic deaths - Cambodia's is 17.4 per 100k inhabitants per year, which is lower than the global average of 18.2, the SE Asia average of 20.7, or Vietnam's 24.5. Thailand is in the Global Top 5 with 32.7 deaths per 100k.
Cambodia's death rate per motor vehicle (as opposed to per inhabitant) is a little higher than the SE Asia average though - 107.2 vs 101 per 100k vehicles, although this statistic is slightly less relevant to the purposes of the thread's title. It's also still much better than Africa's average, which is a shocking 574 deaths per 100k vehicles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... death_rate

La Quenta wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 7:30 pm Surely its not just me.....although many folks make it to a ripe old age in Cambodia, there is clearly a disproportionate number of 30/40/50 somethings who succumb to the grim reaper earlier than intended compared to in the west (or even in Thailand or Vietnam).

I am not totally convinced it's simply down to drugs.
Is it other lifestyle factors - alcohol? awful eating habits of burgers and pizza every night? sedentary habits?
Is it environmental? (water, food and air contaminated somehow?)
Are people who move to Cambodia mentally of a profile who are more likely to take risks?
Could there actually be a massive homicide rate like in central america, murders passed off as 'suicides' or 'heart attacks'

Keen to hear thoughts, as I have NFI.

Great country IMO. Just scares the sht out of me when I hear some stories.

OP- are you mainly talking about khmers or barangs who come here? Or both?

In your intro I thought you're referring to khmers but then you mention burgers and pizza and people who move here which leads me to think barangs.

I think it would help to clarify that coz to my mind there are 2 distinct groups with quite different factors affecting each I would have thought.

clutchcargo wrote: ↑Mon May 31, 2021 10:42 pm OP- are you mainly talking about khmers or barangs who come here? Or both?

In your intro I thought you're referring to khmers but then you mention burgers and pizza and people who move here which leads me to think barangs.

I think it would help to clarify that coz to my mind there are 2 distinct groups with quite different factors affecting each I would have thought.

Oh right, I skimmed and missed that detail. Yeah it definitely does seem like there's a post in this forum at least once every 2-3 months with someone dropping dead, but it's hard to tell if it's just because of the supremely expert level of reporting by CEOCambodiaNews. Does anyone with too much time on their hands want to dive into Search and count them all up?

FWIW https://www.travelsafe-abroad.com/countries/ lists Cambodia as a "green" country with an overall safety rating of 68 - the same exact number given to the USA and 2 points safer than France. An amusing figure to remember whenever you hear windswept travellers waxing lyrical about their walk on the wild side...

When I did a search on "Cambodian death rate", I got this. (Might be OT if we are discussing barang deaths, but it's quite interesting.)
Asia

North America


And the source is (lol): https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/ ... omparison/

This link gives the global average deaths as 7.43/1000 pop - in comparison, the CIA site rates Cambodia at 7.15/1000.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... by-country

So even if we get the impression from Cambodian news reports that people are dropping like flies, the percentage of deaths nationally is not as bad as we might imagine. Also, it should be taken into account that, contrary to a lot of countries, the Khmer news sources seem to report each and every death, so our impressions might be influenced by the amount of reporting.

HOWEVER, a lot of the Cambodian dead are young people, dying too young in all sorts of avoidable accidents - work-related, drownings, fires, electrocutions, senseless violence, and of course traffic accidents.