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by Vasbarlog 31 days ago
If you wear your nostalgia glasses it sure does "seem" more healthy. Life expectancy at birth in the 70s was 70.8. Now it's 79.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/data-finder.htm?&subject=Life%2...

2 comments

Life expectancy is a useful summary statistic but not really a guide to healthy.

The main reason for the increase there is a reduction in child mortality, not an increase in overall healthiness. Ironically, one of the main factors improving the adult population statistics is the decrease in smoking.

But look at something like HALE (Healthy Life Expectancy from WHO[1]) that's much lower and is currently decreasing.

https://data.who.int/indicators/i/48D9B0C/C64284D

I wonder how much of that was occupational vs lifestyle.