EXPECTATION OF LIFE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27538, 21 December 1954, Page 9

EXPECTATION OF LIFE

MAORI AND EUROPEAN CHILDREN STATISTICS FROM 1951 CENSUS “The Press” Specidl Service WELLINGTON, December 20. The expectation of life at birth of a non-Maori boy is 14 years greater than of a Maori boy—6B years as against 54 years. For a non-Maori girl the margin is nearly 17 years—or 72 years compared with nearly 56 years. This is one of the interesting features of 1950-52 life tables compiled from the 1951 census figures by the Census and Statistics Department. For the first time a separate table has been compiled for the Maori people. The differences between non-Maori and Maori life expectancies are greatest at birth. They fall sharply during the first year of life, but much more slowly thereafter, until at 25 a non-Maori can expect to live more than eight years longer than his Maori contemporary—to an age of 72 compared with 63. A non-Maori woman at 25 has an expectation of life of nearly 11 years more than a Maori Woman of the same age. She can expect to live another 50 years, compared with only 39 for a Maori woman.

About 97 per cent, of non-Maori but only 89 per cent, of Maori boys live to start school at the age of five. The same percentage of non-Maori boys live to begin college at the age of 13 but the percentage of Maori boys is 88. The figures for starting work, about the age of 18, are 96 per cent, and 87 per cent, respectively. Approximately 94 per cent of non-Maori boys reach the “prime of life” age of 30 but the figure for Maoris is 82 per cent. NoiiMaori boys who live to celebrate their 45th birthday total about 91 per cent compared with 72 per cent, for Maoris. The percentages reaching the retiring age of 65 are 69 for non-Maoris and only 42 for Maoris. Comparative figures for girls are:— Starting school, non-Maori girls, 98 per cent; Maori girls, 91 per cent. Beginning college, 97 per cent.; 89 per cent Starting work, 97 per cent.; 88 per cent. Reaching the age of 30, 96 per Cent.; 84 per cent. Reaching the age of 45, 93 per cent.; 74 per cent. Attaining retiring age of 65, 78 per cent.; 43 per cent.