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Which is the riskiest age, and why?

According to CDC data from 2021, the crude death rate is highest for those aged 85 and over, making it the most statistically fatal age group. However, the answer to which is the riskiest age is more complex, as risk is not uniform across a lifetime but changes in form, severity, and cause at every stage. Different decades of life are defined by entirely different sets of dominant dangers, from reckless behavior in youth to chronic illness in later life.