[extropy-chat] Life expectancy vs. maximum life span

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Sun Sep 25 13:37:20 UTC 2005


On 9/25/05, Alfio Puglisi wrote:
>
> The interesting bit is table 27 (at page 77 of the pdf file), which lists
> life expectancy at various ages from 1900 to present (life expectancy at
> different ages is defined as follows: at birth, it's the number of years
> you can expect to live. At a later point, it's the number of years you can
> expect to have ahead of you. For example, if at 30 years you have a life
> expectancy of 45 years, it means that in average people like you die at
> 75).
>
> According to the table, life expectancy at birth increased by 30 years
> 1900-2002, by 9 years 1950-2002, and by 2 years 1990-2002. This is a large
> and obvious improvement.
>
> For people who are 65 years old, life expectancy only increased by about 4
> years 1950-2002, and by 1 year 1990-2000.
>
> For people who are 75 years old, the gain from 1990 to 2000 is just 6
> months.
>
> It is apparent that the range is "compressing": more people who in the
> past would have died young live to an older age, but the maximum age
> doesn't really go up. So the average goes up, but the trend is misleading.
>
> Comments?
>

Well, you've got my agreement. :)
That's exactly what I said (or tried to say - :)  ).

"In undeveloped countries infant mortality is a major problem. This
year almost 11 million children under five years of age will die from
causes that are largely preventable. Among them are 4 million babies
who will not survive the first month of life. At the same time, more
than half a million women will die in pregnancy, childbirth or soon
after.
Fixing this has probably been one of the biggest factors in increasing
life expectancy in developed countries."

BillK



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