Why a young sportsman's death is a rare tragedy

28 November 2014
"Young men of 25 die every day," says BBC Sport commenting on the death of the cricketer Philip Hughes.

While it's unimportant in the context, thankfully that's not the case in the UK—not any more.

On average 273 young men of 25 died here in the five years to 2013, some fall from two decades earlier when the figure was 417. That's out of about 440,000 25 year old men in the UK now, and a similar number 20 years ago.

Dying young is really rare: in fact, of every man and boy who died in 2013, fewer than one in five hadn't managed to reach '63 not out', the score on which Philip Hughes tragically left his last match.

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