MeSci
ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
- Messages
- 8,231
- Location
- Cornwall, UK
A few years ago my mother heard that the life expectancy for women in this country (U.S.) was less than her current age. She seemed to think that this meant that she would not live much longer (she has dementia). I looked up life expectancy to show her that the longer you live, the longer you can expect to live. This is what I found (2004 U.S. data, for all people):
Age - Life Expectancy
birth - - - 78
21 - - - - 80
50 - - - - 82
65 - - - - 84
80 - - - - 90
85 - - - - 92
90 - - - - 95
95 - - - - 99
100 - - - 103
Do you have a link for this? If life expectancy is averaged out across a population, those who die young (e.g. in accidents and disasters) will clearly move the average down, so if you have reached an older age the average life expectancy for your age group is now higher.
It's making me wonder how the figures are compiled. I'd like to see figures that exclude accidents, etc., to see how different they are.