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Life Expectancy

Life expectancy is the average number of years a person is expected to live based on mortality rates for a population. It can be calculated at birth or at other ages. Life tables are used to calculate life expectancy by subjecting a hypothetical cohort to current age and sex mortality rates. The life expectancy of countries like Jamaica and Barbados is listed, with women typically living longer than men. Key factors that affect life expectancy include geography, access to primary health care, resource availability, and education levels, especially for women.

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Jelani Greer
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21 views2 pages

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy is the average number of years a person is expected to live based on mortality rates for a population. It can be calculated at birth or at other ages. Life tables are used to calculate life expectancy by subjecting a hypothetical cohort to current age and sex mortality rates. The life expectancy of countries like Jamaica and Barbados is listed, with women typically living longer than men. Key factors that affect life expectancy include geography, access to primary health care, resource availability, and education levels, especially for women.

Uploaded by

Jelani Greer
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Created: 2009-05-04 15:03:01

Updated: 2014-07-14 11:47:52

Word count: 604

Views: 0

This is often referred to as the average number of years which an individual can expect to
live in a given society. Life expectancy is usually given from birth but may apply at any age,
and because, in all societies.(http://www.answers.com/topic/life-expectancy)

It may also be referred to as the average number of years to be lived by a group of people
born in the same year, if mortality at each age remains constant in the future. The entry
includes total population as well as the male and female components. (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy ). Statistics on life expectancy are derived from a
mathematical model known as a life table.

Life tables create a hypothetical cohort (or group) of 100,000 persons (usually of males and
females separately) and subject it to the age-sex-specific mortality rates (the number of
deaths per 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 persons of a given age and sex) observed in a given
population. If it reported that life expectancy at birth in a given population is 75 years in
2000, this does not mean that all members of the population can expect to live to the age of
75. Rather, it means that babies born in that population in 2000 would have a life expectancy
at birth of 75 years, if they live their lives subject to the age-specific mortality rates of the
entire population in 2000. This is not likely; as they age, age-specific mortality rates will
almost certainly change in some ways. (http://www.deathreference.com/Ke-Ma/LifeExpectancy.html).

The life expectancy of a few countries is listed below:

Jamaica-total population: 73.59 yrs

Males: 71.88yrs

Females: 75.38yrs (2008 est)

Barbados-total population: 73.21 years

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Male: 71.2 years


Female: 75.24 years (2008 est.) (www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook)

Life expectancy is affected by:

1. Geography:
According to Caldwell (1986) smaller countries have lower mortality rates than larger
countries. Countries which are in the path of more developed countries such as Europe have
higher life expectancy rates arguably because they are exposed to and benefit from the
death control technology. All of which serve to increase life expectancy rates.

2. Basic Primary Health Care :


The implementation and appropriate use of primary health care is an important component
the life expectancy of a population.(Weeks,1999)

3. Lack of resources :
Countries with high mortality rates and low life expectancies tend to have too few
resources to overcome their risks of death.(Weeks,1999). For example, the life expectancy
of Nigeria is 46yrs when compared to Canada with a life expectancy of 81 yrs. The lack of
resources could be the result of wars which would deplete or pollute the natural resources
as well as the lack of the technology to harvest the resources so that the population can
utilize them.

4. Education of women:
Even in the poorer countries of the world which allow women equal access to education
have a higher life expectancy when compared with the women of countries which do not
educate its women.(Weeks,1999).

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