# Life expectancy at age 65 (international comparison) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574 "2009-07-28T19:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dolukhanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@Dolukhanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dolukhanova)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/1 "2009-07-28T19:07:25Z")
Is there some easily accessible chart that shows life expectancy at 65 (various other ages would also be interesting) for a large number of countries? If so, would someone be so kind as to point me to this chart? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/2 "2009-07-29T00:03:22Z")
to get you started, the Social Security Admin has an actuarial table for the US: [Actuarial Life Table](http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html) You can see the expectation is 20 years for a woman and 17 for a man. Wikipedia’s page links to some tables for other countries. [Life table - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_table) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/3 "2009-07-29T05:07:52Z")
[This bunch of commies](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html) seem to know. U! S! A! We’re number 50! Macau 😕 [OK, not quite what you were asking, but close.] ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/4 "2009-07-29T09:48:53Z")
[Here](http://www.wellsphere.com/healthcare-industry-policy-article/humana-on-health-reform/651118) is a chart using data from 2001-2003. It compares life expectancy at 65 in Japan, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, the US, and the UK. I doubt that much has happened in the past eight years to change the numbers greatly, so if you are a 65 year old Japanese woman you might just be around to see the 2032 Olympics. The OECO median is also given as a ninth element of the chart, but the identity of OECO is unknown to me. The source is given as the Commonwealth Fund but the exact document cited is illegible on my screen. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/5 "2009-07-29T16:03:07Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > [Here](http://www.wellsphere.com/healthcare-industry-policy-article/humana-on-health-reform/651118) is a chart using data from 2001-2003. > > It compares life expectancy at 65 in Japan, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, the US, and the UK. I doubt that much has happened in the past eight years to change the numbers greatly, so if you are a 65 year old Japanese woman you might just be around to see the 2032 Olympics. The OECO median is also given as a ninth element of the chart, but the identity of OECO is unknown to me. > > The source is given as the Commonwealth Fund but the exact document cited is illegible on my screen. It’s interesting to see how they choose to rank the US, and I wonder if there’s some bias there. They rank the US below Germany, but the woman’s life expectancy is .1 years less while the men’s is .6 more. And the US is also ranked below OECD median, because the women are .1 years less, but the men are .5 more. Damn those matriarchs and their constant neglect of male health! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/6 "2009-07-29T16:58:38Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Damn those matriarchs and their constant neglect of male health! 🙂 Quite. They should have given us our own chart. And thanks for translating OECO into something more universally recognisable. ---
**Author:** ![Dolukhanova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@Dolukhanova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dolukhanova)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/7 "2009-07-30T18:11:09Z")
Many thanks to all who replied, and especially to **Chez Guevara**. Odd that it is so easy to find life expectancy at birth statistics, and so hard to find this. If anyone knows of anything with a wider range of countries, I would love to hear of it. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/8 "2009-07-30T18:30:04Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > It’s interesting to see how they choose to rank the US, and I wonder if there’s some bias there. They rank the US below Germany, but the woman’s life expectancy is .1 years less while the men’s is .6 more. And the US is also ranked below OECD median, because the women are .1 years less, but the men are .5 more. > > Damn those matriarchs and their constant neglect of male health! 🙂 I doubt they “choose to rank” US lower. Rather, the mathematical model they used gave those results. It’s probably due to the fact that at these ages there are fewer men than women in the population. To exaggerate for the sake of clarity: If you have 1000 million people living .1 years less than average and 10 million people living .6 years more, the overall calculation will be more heavily weighted towards the 1000 million rather than the 10. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/9 "2009-07-30T19:02:00Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > [This bunch of commies](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html) seem to know. > > U! S! A! We’re number 50! > > Macau 😕 > > [OK, not quite what you were asking, but close.] Our life expectancy is almost exactly the same as Denmark’s. Is anyone in Denmark screaming that their ranking isn’t good enough, and that drastic reforms are needed? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/10 "2009-07-30T23:42:01Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > I doubt they “choose to rank” US lower. Rather, the mathematical model they used gave those results. It’s probably due to the fact that at these ages there are fewer men than women in the population. > > To exaggerate for the sake of clarity: If you have 1000 million people living .1 years less than average and 10 million people living .6 years more, the overall calculation will be more heavily weighted towards the 1000 million rather than the 10. That makes sense as a possible explanation. It’s still a choice, though, and it still affects the perception of the results. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/11 "2009-07-31T03:33:09Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Our life expectancy is almost exactly the same as Denmark’s. > > Is anyone in Denmark screaming that their ranking isn’t good enough, and that drastic reforms are needed? I don’t know whether they are or not. But Danish per capita expenditure on health (public _and_ private) is less than half the corresponding figure for the US, whcih suggests that the US is not getting terribly good value for its health dollar, and therefore has more reason for concern. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/12 "2009-07-31T06:12:17Z")
I recommend checking out [Gapminder](http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/), which allows you to chart out graphs based on worldwide census data, comparing whatever variables you want. Running a graph on life expectancy versus time should get you want you want. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-expectancy-at-age-65-international-comparison/504574/13 "2009-07-31T06:51:34Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > [This bunch of commies](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html) seem to know. > > U! S! A! We’re number 50! > > Macau 😕 > > [OK, not quite what you were asking, but close.] The distinction is sort of important. Life expectancy at birth can be driven way down by infant mortality and other people who die young, vs. life expectancy @65 (or some other age).