Thursday, November 11, 2010

Dying. It's less likely.

We are less likely to die than ever before. Official figures released Wednesday show Australia's "standardised death rate" adjusted for age has almost halved over the past two decades from 9.1 deaths per 1000 to 5.7 deaths.

Merely assuming that death rate continues the Bureau of Statistics says a boy born today can expect to live an average of 79.3 years, and a girl 83.9 years. Should deaths continue to slide there's every chance a girl born this year will live into the 22nd century.

The Bureau says at the end of last year 1120 Australians were aged 100 and over, the fourth consecutive year the total has exceeded 1000. Over the past two decades male life expectancy has climbed 6 years and female life expectancy 4 years. Anyone who is 100 or over has on average 2.5 to 2.7 years left to live.

Indigenous Australians are far more likely to die than other Australians at any time in their lives.... Indigenous Australians aged under 25 are twice as likely to die, those 25 to 34 four times as likely to die, and those aged 35 to 44 five times as likely to die. Indigenous Australians aged over 65 are only one-third more likely to die than other Australains of the same age.

Published in today's Age


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