• Question: what is the average age to die

    Asked by charliet to Hywel, Keith on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Hywel Vaughan

      Hywel Vaughan answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      That really depends on what country you live in charlie, and whether you are male or female.
      Here in the UK, the life expectancy for a man is 77.2 years old, whilst a woman is 81.6 (sorry guys!),
      whereas in Japan, men are expected to live up to 79 and women up to 86.1 years old!
      These estimates reflect the quality of healthcare in different countries as well as other factors such as HIV and AIDS or ongoing wars or disputes!
      The lowest is Swaziland, where men are expected to live to 39.8 and women to only 39.4 (all of these numbers have been taken from a United Nations World Population Prospects report) 🙂

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      This depends on your sex, where you live, and even hold old you are!

      Woman, on average live longer than men, and this isn’t just because men tend to kill each other when they are young.

      In some parts of the world people from different backgrounds have very different life expectancies. The example I know best is from Australia where Aboriginal Australians live for 16 years less than other Australians. Why is this ? Are aborigines mistreated in australia, are their lives tougher, is it because of poorer diet, is it because they drink and smoke too much, is it because or their genes, or is it some thing else? Scientific methods are being used to try to sort this out so that aboriginal Australians can live longer, healthier lives. You can check out the numbers at (http://www.aihw.gov.au/mortality/life_expectancy/indig.cfm).

      In the UK, life expectancy for high school age boys is about 75, and for girls is about 80 (from the Uk government site http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nscl.asp?id=7528 )

Comments

  • Photo: Keith

    Keith commented on :

    You might notice that there are two slightly different numbers here for light expectancy, but we’re both right (in our own special ways!). Firstly, Hywels is more precise, whereas I’m less precise because these are estimates that I think that quite big errors. Also, because life expectancy varies with age (for more than one reason!), you have to ask very precise questions when thinking about life expectancy. I think that Hywel’s answer is for someone born today (or, when the figures were compiles), whereas I’ve estimated life expectancy for a high-school age group (cohort). So, we’re both right!

    Also, it points out that life expectancy is still rising – I’d like to think that its because of better health care, but maybe there are other reasons too …!

    Hywel – yes, those African figures are really bad – AIDs is a real problem! The Wikipedia Swaziland entry cites the “2009 CIA World Factbook” to argue that its now even lower, at 32, so it seems to be getting even worse.