Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1877 — CONCERNING LONGEVITY. [ARTICLE]

CONCERNING LONGEVITY.

What Is Shown by Life Insurance Tables. Our modern life insurance tables contain very accurate approximations to the average age attained by civilized mankind, and, being founded upon the best attainable statistical information, can be relied upon. It would appear that the chances of the child who reaches the age of 10 years in fair health for arriving at the “three-score-and-ten,” designated by the Psalmist as the reasonable limit of life, are 4 ont of 10; that is to say, there are 40,000 men and women alive at 70 years of age ont of every 100,000 who reach the age of 10 years. Only 1 in that 100,000 may expect, however, to round out a full century, although 10 may live to see 95 and 100 up to 93. The fewer deaths occur between the ages of 25 and 28 inclusive, at which period men and women should be in the very prime of their lives. Of:the 100,000, 750 will die the first year; then the annual number of deaths will gradually decline to 718 between the ages of 25 and 28, after which they again increase, until at 51 they reach 1,000 per annum; at 60 they number over 1,500; at 66 more than 2,000, and, between the ages of 73 and 74 they reach their maximum at 2,500 each year. At 75, there being but 20,000 of the original 100,000 remaining altogether, they commence to decline again. At 80 the number of deaths annually is about 2,000; at 87 it is less than 1,000. For the benefit of those curious in such matters, the following table may be of interest, the estimate being based upon 100,000 children of either sex, who have reached the age of 10 years, showing the whole number that will live to the ages mentioned: 90,000 2315,000 83 80,000 37 2,000 85 70,000 50 1,000 90 60,000 68,500 91 50,000 651350 92 40,000 70 100 93 30,000 73 25 94 20,000 .77 10 95 10,000 82 1 100 The deaths average less than 1 per cent, per annum of the whole number np to the age of 51, although amounting to upward of 10 per cent, of the number surviving after the age of 41. Thenceforward the annual percentage of deaths increases very rapidly, until at 93 it amounts to nearly the entire number of survivors.