On 7/31/2013 4:08 PM, Chris Dickinson wrote: > David Morgan wrote: > > >> According to this compilation of U.S. statistics >> http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html >> life expectancy has increased for all ages, not just at birth. > >> For example, 100 years ago, a 50-year-old white male could expect, on average, to live to age 70. Whereas now a 50-year-old white male can expect to live to age 79. > >> I would be surprised (but interested) if this is different in the UK. > > > > We can only make guesses about this. A general increase in adult life expectancy could be down, say, to better air quality. > > > What is certainly the case is that an adult will survive significantly longer in non-polluted areas than in polluted ones - a significant factor again probably being air quality. > > > Chris > Nothing has to change in the life of an adult for the AVERAGE life expectancy to increase. All you have to do is decrease the infant deaths and the death on women in child birth. exp. average of 10, 12, 50, 60, and 70 is 40.4 years exp. average 50, 60, and 70 is 60 years. This change has nothing to do with environment, pollution or any other factor; than preventing the deaths of the young children. As you I would expect the average life expectancy of people living in a large city like New York or Los Angeles to be less that some one living in Harlan Indiana or Chatfield Ohio. In both areas the biological life spans will be the same, the averages will be skewed down because of the death of the younger people. Of course Harlan and Chatfield do not have the murder and crime rates of the large cities.