Say, you are asked to make a very brief presentation comparing mortality data of Rhode Island with that of Florida, or Alaska, or any other state. You are allowed to use any one of the two mortality indicators. That is, you can compare either the crude mortality rates, or the age-adjusted mortality rates, but you cannot use both. In such a situation, which one would you use and why?

Table 1: Number of deaths, mid-year populations, death rates, and age-adjusted mortality (death) rates for the United States and a few specific states, 2017 (mortality data retrieved from NVSS Reports, Vol 68, No. 9 https://www.cdc.govchs/datavsrvsr68vsr68 09-508.pdf.) Estimated population Age distribution (%) as Total number of Crude mortality Age-adjusted mortality on July 1, 2017 (data of July 1, 2017 (data deaths (due to all- rate (per 100,000 rate (per 100,000 US from census.gov) from US Census Bureau) causes combined) population) standard population) United States 325,000,000