A new map shows the "most distinctive" causes of death for each state. It shows where a rate of death from a certain cause was much higher than it was in the entire United States. Credit: Francis Boscoe, New York State Cancer Registry View full size image

The most common killers in the United States are well known — heart disease and cancer. But there are other, less common causes of death that are actually much more typical in certain states compared with the nation as a whole.

Now, a new map shows these so-called "most distinctive" causes of death for each state.

The map is "a somewhat of a colorful and provocative way of starting some conversations and highlighting some unusual things that are going on," said study co-author Francis Boscoe, a research scientist at New York State Cancer Registry.

In some cases, the most distinctive cause of death was not so surprising, the authors wrote. The flu was the most distinctive cause of death in several northern states, including Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Deaths from plane or boat accidents were the most distinctive causes of death in Alaska and Idaho. And pneumoconioses, a group of lung diseases caused by inhaling certain dusts, were the most distinctive causes of death in mining states, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.