Population and misfortune

Happy Halloween!

In the past, we've covered the cost of candy, costumes and pumpkins. Today we celebrate this holiday by showing how any FRED user can conjure economic oddities from the dark corners of FRED's database.

Our first FRED graph above, in the form of a 10-legged spider, tracks resident population data for 5 spooky US counties:

• Graves, Kentucky
• Erie, Pennsylvania
• Crow Wing, Minnesota
• Lac qui Parle, Minnesota
• Malheur, Oregon

The last 2 counties are extra-spooky French names: "Lake that Speaks" and "Misfortune."

Speaking of misfortune, our second FRED graph, above, uses data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reveal the rate of premature deaths in these counties. These data adjust for the age distribution in any given county compared with a standard county, as explained in this FRED Blog post.

The CDC defines premature death as any death before the average age of death in the US population. These malheurs can be accidents, diseases, murders, and other unnatural fatal occurrences that send people to their graves.

Speaking of Graves, that county in Kentucky has the highest rate of premature deaths among the 5 counties in this haphazard list.

How this graph was created: For the first graph: Search FRED for and select "graves resident population." From the "Edit Graph" panel, use the "Add Line" tab to search for and add the same series for Crow Wing, Lac qui Parle, Malheur, and Erie. Under "Units," choose "Index," with 1991-03-01 as the date, and click "Copy to All." For the second graph: Search for and select "graves premature deaths" and select the age-adjusted series. Add the same for the rest of the counties.

Suggested by George Fortier and Christian Zimmermann.