Abstract
ACCORDING to the April issue of the Statistical Bulletin, the organ of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York, the average length of life of the American people has increased by almost one third since the beginning of the century. In 1941 the average expectation of life at birth was 64.36 years, which was a gain of more than fifteen years since 1901. The record was especially favourable for white females, who in 1941 had attained an average length of life of 68.08, as compared with 63.39 years for white males. Coloured persons showed a greater longevity than the white, though the current longevity among the coloured was still ten years less than for the white. The most substantial gain in longevity occurred in childhood, adolescence and young adult life, the death-rates in 1941 below forty being well under one half those at the beginning of the century. Improvements in mortality have also taken place even after forty. The favourable health situation is also illustrated by the fact that about 60 per cent of the babies now being born will live to 65 as compared with only 40 per cent in 1901. On the whole, health conditions have been very favourable in spite of the growing shortage of civilian medical men, the initiation of restrictions on food consumption, the crowding in centres of war industries and inadequate housing.
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Increase in American Longevity. Nature 152, 443 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152443c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152443c0