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Life expectancy is the average number of years remaining for a living being (or the average for a class of living beings) of a given age to live. Life expectancy is also called average life span or mean life span, in particular distinction to maximum life span (the life span of the most long lived members of a class of living beings). The maximum life span is a measure of the maximum number of years a member of a group can be expected to survive. ...
Although it is common usage to talk about life expectancy of any living being ranging from trees, insects, dogs, stroke victims, to mine workers, this article focuses on human life expectancy in general, that is, the aging and longevity profile of the human species. Trees has more than one meaning: Trees, a poem by Joyce Kilmer for further disambiguation, see Tree_(disambiguation) slang for cannabis TreePeople, an environmental nonprofit based in Los Angeles This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...
Classes & Orders Subclass: Apterygota Orders Archaeognatha (Bristletails) Thysanura (Silverfish) Monura - extinct Subclass: Pterygota Infraclass: Paleoptera (paraphyletic) Orders Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Protodonata - extinct Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) Diaphanopteroidea - extinct Palaeodictyoptera - extinct Megasecoptera - extinct Archodonata - extinct Infraclass: Neoptera Orders Blattodea (cockroaches) Isoptera (termites) Mantodea (mantids) Dermaptera (earwigs) Plecoptera (stoneflies) Protorthoptera - extinct Orthoptera (grasshoppers...
Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The dog is a canine mammal of the Order Carnivora. ...
A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted. ...
The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mine This article is about mineral extraction. ...
Hans Baldung Grien: The Ages And Death, c. ...
Longevity is long life or existence. ...
Overview Human life expectancy at various ages and under different circumstances is carefully studied by the insurance and actuarial professions, and is calculated on the basis of historic data as shown on the mortality or annuity table used as a reference. Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. ...
Actuaries (from the Latin verb agere to do, drive) are business professionals who deal with the financial impact of risk. ...
By way of example, if people that are aged 60 live 10 more years on the average in a country, the life expectancy of people aged 60 in that country is said to be 10. If an age is not specified, life expectancy is understood to be from birth, so that "life expectancy of white Americans is higher than that of Hispanic Americans" is a (correct) statement of fact meaning that white Americans live longer on the average than Hispanics. The fact that an average is calculated over a (sub)set of the population makes life expectancy a statistical measure. For Wikipedia statistics, see m:Statistics Statistics is the science and practice of developing human knowledge through the use of empirical data expressed in quantitative form. ...
Notice that the life expectancy is heavily dependent on the criteria used to select the group. In countries with high infant mortality rates, the life expectancy at birth is highly sensitive to the rate of death in the first few years of life. In these cases, another measure such as life expectancy at age 10 can be used to exclude the effects of infant mortality to reveal the effects of other causes of death. Usually, though, life expectancy at birth is specified. To calculate it, it is assumed that current mortality levels remain constant throughout the lives of the hypothetical newborns. For early system failures, see failure rate. ...
Increasing life expectancy One of the biggest boosts of life expectancy was given by the introduction of sewers, which greatly reduced the spread of disease. In the last few centuries a strong statistical effect was caused by the near elimination of infant mortality in the West and elsewhere. On a world-wide scale, though, a lot depends on combating poverty. Sewers transport wastewater from buildings to treatment facilities. ...
For early system failures, see failure rate. ...
The West can refer to : The U.S. West or the American West The Western world, or Western Civilization. ...
A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ...
Some scientists claim that the human brain can live up to 200 years. Presumably brain-death is caused by early brain-aging in a body that provides a worse habitat than one it could survive in (e.g. causing a less functional circulatory system). Thus, improved health care might, in theory, triple our life expectancy.
On the other hand, there would be considerable skepticism expressed regarding the above paragraph from many biological scientists. The "theory" that improved health care will triple life expectancy is not supported by extrapolation from current trends in improving life expectancy.
Mankind has always dreamed about improving life expectancy, as illustrated by the belief in an afterlife and exemplified by the mummification in ancient Egypt. In the 21st century further improvements are expected from biotechnology. More futuristic is the idea that if artificial intelligence could be created and people's minds could 'hook up to that', the conscience will gradually shift to this potentially infinitely larger 'brain', so that when the biological body and brain die, the mind, and therefore the person, will continue to exist, in principle for ever. The word mummification has more than one meaning: The process of preparing a dead body for preservation; or the preservation of a body through natural processes; see: Mummy The practice of restraining a living body as part of a sexual bondage experience: see mummification (bondage). ...
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Biotechnology is a technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as intelligence exhibited by an artificial entity. ...
Life expectancy over human history Life expectancy before the 'health transition' of the modern era is thought to have varied between about 20 yrs and 35 years, depending upon particular circumstances. It has been suggested that life expectancy fell with the introduction of plant and animal domestication because of: - higher infection rates caused by the increase in human settlement size and density,
- poorer nutrition due to reduced meat intake, and
- 'greater interference with mineral absorption by cereal based diet'.
Galor, Oded and Moav, Omer, "Natural Selection and the Evolution of Life Expectancy" (October 12, 2005). Minerva Center for Economic Growth Paper No. 02-05 http://ssrn.com/abstract=563741 An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. ...
Life expectancy recovered somewhat in the Bronze Age but it is only in recent centuries (since 1800) that it has dramatically increased. These changes are the result of a combination of factors including public health, medicine, and nutrition. The most important single factor in the increase is the reduction in death in infancy. The greatest improvements have been made in the richest parts of the world, but the same effects are now spreading to other parts of the world as their economies and infrastructure improve. The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ...
Life expectancy increased dramatically in the 20th century, especially in developed nations. Life expectancy at birth in the United States in 1901 was 49 years. At the end of the century it was 77 years, an increase of over 50%. Similar gains have been enjoyed throughout the world. Life expectancy in India and the People's Republic of China was around 40 years at midcentury. At century's close it had risen to around 63 years. These gains were due largely to the eradication and control of numerous infectious diseases and to advances in agricultural technology (such as chemical fertilizers). (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...
Fertilizers are chemicals given to plants with the intention of promoting growth; they are usually applied either via the soil or by foliar spraying. ...
Basic life expectancy numbers tend to exaggerate this growth, however. The low level of pre-modern life expectancy is distorted by the previous extremely high infant and childhood mortality. If a person did make it to the age of forty they had an average of another twenty years to live. Improvements in medicine, public health, and nutrition have therefore mainly increased the numbers of people living beyond childhood, with less effect on overall average lifespan. For early system failures, see failure rate. ...
These improvements continue to confound the predictions of Thomas Malthus, who predicted what is now known as the Malthusian catastrophe which would occur when population growth exceeded the capacity of the world to sustain that population. The Rev. ...
A Malthusian catastrophe, sometimes known as a Malthusian check, Malthusian crisis, Malthusian dilemma, Malthusian disaster or Malthusian Trap, is a return to subsistence-level conditions as a result of agricultural (or, in later formulations, economic) production being eventually outstripped by growth in population. ...
The major exception to this general pattern of improvement has been in those countries worst hit by AIDS, principally in Sub-Saharan Africa, which have seen significant falls in life expectancy due to the disease in recent years. European communist countries (such as the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) were characterized by decreasing life expectancy and increasing mortality (especially among adult men) from the late 1960s, after an initial rise after the Russian Revolution. Another exception is Russia and other former USSR republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Life expectancy of men dropped to 59.9 years (below the official retirement age), of women to 72.43 years (1999). The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS. AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and is defined as a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the depletion of the immune system caused...
The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a political movement in Russia which reached its peak in 1917 with the overthrow of the Provisional Government that had replaced the Russian Czarist system, and led to the establishment of the Soviet Union, which lasted until its collapse in 1991. ...
The rise of Gorbachev Although reform stalled between 1964–1982, the generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ...
Retirement is the status of a worker who has stopped working. ...
In recent years, obesity-correlated diseases have become a major public health issue in many countries. The prevalence of obesity is thought to have reduced a potential for longer life expectancy by contributing to the rise of cancers, heart disease and diabetes in the developed world.
Throughout human history most of the increase in life expectancy arose from preventing early deaths. However, many scientists believe this will not stay true in the near future as medical advancements aimed at better monitoring day to day, medically significant test values, and simple intervention such as blood pressure and clotting level control will prevent many sudden deaths or strokes. Other, medical and surgical interventions will lead to halting or even reversing aspects of the aging process. It is widely believed by researchers, that a full half of the North American and Japanese babies born since 2000 will live to an age of 90, and 10% to 100 years of age. Hopefully, with that extended lifespan, more productive and non-debilitated years will be added to the extreme upper end of middle age.
Timeline for humans Homo sapiens live on average 37 years in Zambia and on average 81 years in Japan. The oldest confirmed recorded age for any human is 122 years, though some people in Asia are reported to have lived over 150 years. The following information is derived from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961: Jeanne Calment Jeanne Louise Calment (February 21, 1875 – August 4, 1997) had the longest confirmed lifespan (122 years and 164 days) for any human being in history. ...
Humans by Era, Average Lifespan (in years)
[[{{{diversity_link}}}|Diversity]] {{{diversity}}} Binomial name Homo neanderthalensis Trinomial name {{{trinomial}}} Type Species {{{type_species}}} {{{subdivision_ranks}}} [[Image:{{{range_map}}}|{{{range_map_width}}}|]] Synonyms {{{synonyms}}} The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, during the Middle...
The Neolithic, (Greek neos = new, lithos = stone, or New Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. ...
This article describes the ancient classical period: for the classical period in music (second half of the 18th century): see Classical music era. ...
History - Ancient history - Ancient Rome This is a List of Ancient Rome-related topics, that aims to include aspects of both the Ancient Roman Republic and Roman Empire. ...
Mediæval Britain is a term used to suggest that there is a unity to the history of Great Britain from the 5th centurys withdrawal of Roman forces and Germanic invasions until the 16th century Reformations in Scotland and England. ...
Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ...
// Events and Trends Technology Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft Mass production of automobile Wide popularity of home phonograph Panama Canal is built by the United...
// Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ...
Saddam Hussein shortly after his capture Major controversy over U. S. presidential election (November 7-December 13, 2000) September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New Yorks World Trade Center and Virginias Pentagon killing almost 3000 people. ...
Variations in life expectancy in the world today There are great variations in life expectancy worldwide, mostly caused by differences in public health, medicine and nutrition from country to country.
There are also variations between groups within single countries. For example, in the US in the early 20th century there were very large differences in life expectancy between people of different races, which have since lessened. There remain significant differences in life expectancy between men and women in the US and other developed countries, with women outliving men. These differences by sex have been reducing in recent years, with men's life expectancy improving at a faster rate than women's. Poverty and inequality has a very substantial effect on life expectancy. In the United Kingdom life expectancy in the wealthiest areas is ten years longer than the poorest areas and the gap appears to be increasing as life expectancy for the prosperous continues to increase while in more deprived communities there is little increase. (Department of Health -[Tackling health inequalities]: Status report on the Programme for Action
Air pollution may also reduce life expectancy, especially for those living near busy roads, due to the exhaust fumes from cars. Occupation may also have a major effect on life expectancy. Well-educated professionals working in offices have a high life expectancy, while asbestos and coal miners do not. Other aspects for individual life expectancy are genetic disorders and, to some extent, excessive drug use, especially when the purity of the drug is low or unknown.
Life expectancy of animals and plants The vast majority of animals have shorter life expectancies than humans do, and typically the lifespan of the animal increases with size. Some examples include: - Birds usually live 10-30 years, with parrots - particularly macaws - the notable exception, with lifespans ranging from 40-80 years.
- Certain trees have almost outlived recorded human history; the baobab tree can live for 1,000-4,000 years, although it is understandably difficult to measure this. Similarly long-lived are olive trees, domesticated in the Mediterranean. Several olive trees still alive today were nurtured by the ancient Greeks.
- Many corals can potentially live for over 100,000 years. However, there is no consensus among marine biologists how to determine age of a coral, and whether or not it is really a single organism.
Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) This article is about the domestic cat. ...
Whales are the largest species of exclusively aquatic mammals, members of the order Cetacea, which also includes dolphins and porpoises. ...
Genera See article below. ...
Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (called cows in vernacular usage) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ...
Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The Horse (Equus caballus) is a sizeable ungulate mammal, one of the ten modern species of the genus Equus, and considered by some to be the best of all the animals. ...
Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius A camel is either of the two species of large even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus, the Dromedary (single hump) and the Bactrian Camel (double hump). ...
Subfamilies Capreolinae Cervinae Hydropotinae Muntiacinae A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. ...
Orders Many - see section below. ...
Genera A parrot is a bird belonging to the family Psittacidae. ...
Genera Ara Anodorhynchus Cyanopsitta Propyrrhura Orthopsittaca Diopsittaca Macaws are large colorful parrots, classified into six of the many Psittacidae genera: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Propyrrhura, Orthopsittaca , and Diopsittaca. ...
Genera and Species Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Elephas recki †Stegodon †Mammuthus †Elephantidae (the elephants) is a family of animals, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea. ...
[[{{{diversity_link}}}|Diversity]] {{{diversity}}} Binomial name Balaenoptera musculus (Linneus, 1758) Trinomial name {{{trinomial}}} Type Species {{{type_species}}} {{{subdivision_ranks}}} Blue Whale range Synonyms {{{synonyms}}} The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. ...
Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The dog is a canine mammal of the Order Carnivora. ...
Families See text Turtles are reptiles of the order Chelonia, most of whose body is shielded by a special bony or cartilagenous shell developed from their ribs. ...
The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. ...
Species See text The baobabs (Adansonia), occasionally known colloquially as monkey-bread trees, are a genus of eight species of trees, native to Madagascar (the centre of diversity, with six species), and Africa and Australia (one species in each). ...
For the Italian political alliance see Olive Tree, and the color, olive (color). ...
Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. ...
// Headline text Headline text Headline text Headline text Bold text Orders Scleractinia Corals are gastrovascular marine cnidarians (phylum Cnidaria; class Anthozoa) existing as small sea anemone-like polyps, typically forming colonies of many individuals. ...
Evolution and aging rate The different lifespans of different plants and animals, including humans raises the question of why these lifespans are found.
The evolutionary theory is that organisms that are able by virtue of their defenses or lifestyle to live for long periods whilst avoiding accidents, disease, predation etc. are likely to have genes that code for slow aging- good repair.
This is so because if a change to the organism (for example a bird might evolve stronger wings) may mean that it is exceptionally capable of escaping from predation, then it will live longer, and die of old age. So a member of the population with the better wings who by chance has genes that code for better repair will outlast its contemporaries and have more successors. Its genes will tend to dominate more and more of the gene pool and genes for slower aging and slower reproduction rate will dominate.
Conversely a change to the environment that means that organisms die younger from a common disease will mean that organisms that have genes that code for putting more energy into reproduction than repair will do better.
The support for this theory includes the fact that better defended animals, for example cats, live longer and functionally age slower than less well defended animals such as dogs; and even small birds that can fly away from danger live for a decade or more whereas mice which cannot, die of old age in a year or two. Turtles are very well defended indeed and live for over a hundred years.
Calculating life expectancy The starting point for calculating life expectancy is to calculate the crude death rates of people in the population at each age. For example, if one observed a group of people who were alive at their 90th birthday, and 10% of them were dead by their 91st birthday, then the crude death rate at age 90 would be 10%. Mortality rate is the annual number of deaths per 1000 people. ...
These crude death rates can be used to calculate a life table, from which one can calculate the probability of surviving to each age. In actuarial notation the probability of surviving from age x to age n+x is denoted  . In actuarial science, a life table (sometimes called a mortality table) is basically a table which shows, for a person at each age, what the probability is that they die before their next birthday. ...
Actuarial notation is a shorthand method to allow actuaries to record mathematical formulas that deal with interest rates and life tables. ...
The "curtate" life expectancy at age x, denoted  , is then calculated by adding up these probabilities at every age. This is the expected number of complete years lived (one may think of it as the number of birthdays they celebrate).
Because the age is rounded down to the last birthday, on average, it can be expected that people live half a year beyond their final birthday, and half a year is added to the curtate life expectancy to calculate the full life expectancy.
Average life expectancy is almost always calculated as an arithmetic mean as above. The median life expectancy is very occasionally used instead. In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean of a set of numbers is the sum of all the members of the set divided by the number of items in the set (cardinality). ...
In probability theory and statistics, the median is a number that separates the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution from the lower half. ...
Note that no allowance has been made in this calculation for expected changes in life expectancy in the future. Usually when life expectancy figures are quoted, they have been calculated like this with no allowance for expected future changes. This means that quoted life expectancy figures are not generally appropriate for calculating how long any given individual of a particular age is expected to live, as they effectively assume that current death rates will be "frozen" and not change in the future. Instead, life expectancy figures can be thought of as a useful statistic to summarise the current health status of a population.
Other meanings 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania) is a prolific and best-selling fiction author known primarily for his popular suspense novels. ...
See also Age-Adjusted Life Expectancy is the estimation of how long a person is expected to live based on their current age. ...
In epidemiology, the morbidity rate is a ratio that measures the incidence and prevalence of a specific disease. ...
Demography is the study of human population dynamics. ...
U.S. Economic Calendar Economics at the Open Directory Project Economics textbooks on Wikibooks The Economists Economics A-Z Daily analysis of economics in the news (UK focus) Institutions and organizations Bureau of Labor Statistics - from the American Labor Department Center for Economic and Policy Research (USA) National Bureau...
This is a list of countries by life expectancy, based on The World Factbook, 2005 estimates. ...
The maximum life span is a measure of the maximum number of years a member of a group can be expected to survive. ...
In biology, senescence is the state or process of aging which follows the period of development. ...
Increasing lifespan Aubrey de Grey is Editor-in-Chief of the Rejuvenation Research journal, which deals with topics related to engineered negligible senescence. ...
John Sperling (1921-) is a US billionaire who is credited with leading the contemporary for-profit education movement in the United States. ...
Life extension refers to an increase in maximum lifespan or average lifespan, especially in mammals. ...
Longevity is long life or existence. ...
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