Fascinating Death Demographic Data
There are some fascinating death-related factoids in a new release from Statistics Canada.- Life expectancy in Canada has surpassed 80 years for the first time ever.
- The male-female life expectancy gap continues to shrink, with it having almost halved in the last 25 years.
- The death increase rate in Canada is among the smallest in the last 25 years. Deaths were up only 0.2% in 2004 from 2003, with the number of men dying actually declining year-over-year.
- The death sex ratio recently fell below the birth sex ratio for the first time ever. "For every 100 female deaths in 2004, there were 102 male deaths. This sex ratio in 2004 was the smallest during the past quarter-century, and was well below the ratio of 135 in 1979. At birth, boys still outnumber girls by a ratio of about 106 to 100 in Canada."
Overall, it's easy to avert your eyes at this sort of thing, but there are major longevity-related demographic trends being shown here. While looking away from these statistics is understandable, it's also an unfortunate human instinct. We are living longer, there are more males around, and death rates are declining. Fascinating (and not to be crass, but investable) stuff.
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