Life Expectancy Up, Death Rates Down

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jun 11, 2008 7:06PM

The National Center for Health Statistics released its life expectancy report, and good news! If you can read the report, you're still alive. Also, life expectancy for babies born in 2006 is an all-time US high of 78.1 years, and the age-adjusted death rate reached a record low.

Other findings from the latest mortality report:

• The leading cause of death is still heart disease, followed by cancer, cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, Alzheimer's disease (which moved up from #7 to #6), diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia.
• 35 people died from syphilis in 2006, 9 from malaria, 787 from pregnancy and childbirth, 44,572 from motor vehicle accidents, 777 from accidental gunshots, 32,185 from suicide, and 18,029 homicide.
• 2,425,900 died in the US in 2006, 102,183 of them in Illinois
• The life expectancy for those born in 2006 is 80.7 years for a white female baby, 76.9 for a black female baby, 75.4 for a white male baby, and 70.0 for a black male baby

You can read the whole report here, and then meditate on the transient nature of life. On a related note...the Hypocrites' Our Town is coming back in September! Hotcha.