"About 57,000 people die in Virginia every year. Statistically speaking, they're less likely to die in Northern Virginia than elsewhere in the state, a new study shows.

The state medical examiner's office has released a comprehensive study of death in Virginia, as seen by the state's four regional medical examiners. The study covered 2006, a year in which medical examiners investigated 5,851 deaths, or about 10 percent of the state's annual total. Of the cases handled by medical examiners -- not to be confused with coroners, who are used in other states and aren't always licensed pathologists -- men died 2.4 times as often as women in Virginia.

The good news: Homicides declined 14 percent from 2005 to 2006, from 498 to 427 statewide. More than 46 percent of Virginia's counties, cities and towns had no homicides.

The not-so-good good news: Suicides decreased slightly in 2006 but have risen almost 10 percent since 2003, from 816 to 884. More than 75 percent of those who killed themselves were men, the study said.

"Suicide is a measure of despair," said Marcella F. Fierro, who was the state's chief medical examiner until she retired in Dec. 31. "Many reach out for help, and their calls must be recognized and acted upon. We need to develop strategies to help those who don't reach out."

Fierro was succeeded by Leah L.E. Bush, who had been an assistant chief medical examiner in Norfolk.

The report also looks at accidental deaths, child deaths and manner of death. In most categories, Northern Virginia had a proportionally lower share of the state total. For example, 85 people committed suicide in Fairfax County in 2006, the most in the state and 9.6 percent of all suicides. But Fairfax has more than 13 percent of the state's population, so it actually has fewer suicides than might be expected. Also, the statewide suicide rate is 11.2 per 100,000 people; Fairfax's suicide rate was 8.4.

Suicides increased in Loudoun County, from 17 in 2005 to 20 in 2006. As in Fairfax, the suicide rate in Loudoun, 7.4 per 100,000 people, was below the statewide rate.

In Arlington County, suicides plummeted in 2006, from 27 to 11. The county's population of nearly 200,000 is 2.6 percent of the state total, and its 11 suicides were 1.3 percent of the state total. Similarly, 27 people committed suicide in Prince William County in 2006, 3.2 percent of the state's total. Prince William makes up 4.7 percent of the state population.

In Richmond, 32 people killed themselves in 2006, 3.7 percent of the state's total for a city of 192,000 people, who make up 2.5 percent of Virginia's population.

Richmond maintained its statistical lead as Virginia's homicide capital, with 95 slayings in 2006, more than 22 percent of the state's total. Norfolk -- with a population of about 229,000, 4 percent of the state's total -- had 48 homicides in 2006, which was 11 percent of the state's total.

Homicides in Northern Virginia were disproportionately low. Only Fairfax and Prince William counties had more than 10 homicides, both far below their population shares.

Fairfax had the highest raw number of accidental deaths in Virginia in 2006, with 227. But even that, 9.6 percent of the state total, is lower than its share of the population. Prince William had the second most accidental deaths in Northern Virginia, 63.

Other notable statistics from the study:

* Of homicides, 60 percent of victims in 2006 were black, although African Americans make up only 20.4 percent of the state population. Also, 78 percent of homicide victims were men, and 71 percent were killed with a gun.

* Of suicides, 75 percent were men; 56 percent of all suicides involved a gun.

* Of those committing suicide, 86 percent were white, and three-quarters of them were men. Ten black women killed themselves in Virginia.

* Suicides were most likely to occur among men and women 45 to 54, who made up more than 24 percent of those who took their lives in 2006.

* Accidental deaths have increased 29.3 percent in Virginia since 1999. Motor vehicles were the most common cause, involved in almost 44 percent of accidental deaths. Drugs were involved in 21 percent.

* Among natural deaths, heart disease was by far the biggest cause, cited in more than 65 percent of cases. Blunt force injuries caused more than 41 percent of the 3,711 unnatural deaths, far more than the nearly 22 percent attributed to gunshot wounds.

* Child homicides declined slightly in 2006, from 49 to 46.

The medical examiner produces the report to help policymakers and health planners "create hope and change and make something good come from the violence and destruction of human life we see every day," Fierro said. "We learn from the dead to help the living."" (Tom Jackman, The Washington Post, February 7, 2008)