This is the deadliest day of the week

Everybody loves weekends, but it turns out there’s a dark side to this two-day break.

Saturdays are the deadliest day of the week.

That’s according to research by Live Science using data from the Atlanta, Georgia–based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC’s Wonder database contains data on all deaths in the United States from 1999 to 2014. According to this, there were more than 39 million deaths during that period, with a high of 5.7 million total deaths on Saturdays. Interestingly, Sundays had the lowest, with 5.6 million total deaths.

Of the Saturday deaths, car crashes took home the top prize – 42,332, compared to 28,523 on Tuesday, the day with the lowest. Deaths due to drug overdoses also ranked high with 85,285, compared to the low of 67,830 – also on Tuesday.

Deaths by accidents as a whole, including those aforementioned car crashes, also peaked on Saturdays, with a total of 309,206.

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Weekends were also bad for firearm deaths. Sunday had slightly higher numbers, with 32,314 gun-related fatalities, about 500 more than Saturday. The fewest number of deaths from firearms occurred on Thursday.

The greatest number of deaths due to “contact with a venomous plant or animal”, meanwhile, also occurred on Saturdays, with a total of 216 reported deaths. Sunday had the weekly low with 169 deaths.

When it comes to matters of the heart, Mondays are not good. Deaths due to heart attacks peaked on this day, with a total of 348,206 fatal heart attacks reported by the CDC. Thursday had the fewest, with 333,180. Tuesday ranked second for heart attack deaths, with 337,918. (Interestingly, a 2005 study in the European Journal of Epidemiology also concluded that sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S. were more likely to occur on Mondays, regardless of people’s age or sex.)

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Across the board, the top 10 causes of death on each day lined up with the CDC’s top 10 causes of death overall, Live Science reported. In other words, no matter what day of the week it was, the leading causes of death were: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, flu and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide.

What do you think of these findings? Let us know by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.