Male Islanders’ death rate

Press, 10 May 1982, Page 10

Male Islanders’ death rate

PA Wellington Male Pacific Islanders who died in New Zealand during 1980 died at an average age of 38, according to Statistics Department figures. The figure compared with an average age of 40 for those who died in the previous year. However, actuarial and medical sources said that the average age at death cannot be equated with life expectancy which is considerably higher. Life-expectancy figures from last year’s census will be available later this year, 'Life expectancy is worked out by using age-groups and years of birth; and the average age at death for a year is simply an addition of the ages of those who died divided by the number who died. The 1980 average age at death for European males was 66 and for Maori males, 50. The average for women was higher at 72 for Europeans, 51 for Maoris, and 42 for Pacific Islanders.

In 1980. the death rate grew and the birth rate declined. bringing the natural increase rate down to 7.6 per cent per 1000 head of population, compared with 8.6 the previous year. This put New Zealand behind Japan, Canada, and Australia but ahead of the United States and Britain. In 1980, deaths numbered 26.676 and there were 50,542 births. The number of infant deaths decreased overall. The number of children who died after one month of life rose but the number of deaths in the first month decreased. Over the five years leading up to 1980 there had been a significant reduction in the number of children born during the first three years of marriage and an increase in the number bom to couples married between three and 10 years. One in five children. 21 per cent, were born outside marriage, an increase on the 1979 figure of 17.5 per cent.