Death by sepsis results from the body’s response to severe infections. Sepsis, also known as septicemia, is a leading cause of death, with over 500,000 deaths recorded nationwide between 1999 and 2014.

For at least the past decade, Philadelphia has had one of the highest sepsis mortality rates among large cities in the United States. The reasons for this persistently high rate are not well understood, nor are the reasons for wide geographic variation in sepsis mortality. This ongoing research project, run by undergraduates in the Department of Sociology at Temple University under the direction of Matt Wray, is devoted to finding explanations.

• Age Adjusted Sepsis Mortality Rates (Large Urban Counties)
• Map of Urban Sepsis Mortality (courtesy David Ford, Social Science Data Library)