NATIONAL VITALITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19994, 10 November 1927, Page 11

NATIONAL VITALITY

LONGER LIFE IN BRITAIN LONDON, Nov. 1. Striking facts bearing on the national vitality arc set out in a report issued by the Government Actuary, Sir Alfred' W. Watson, the principal feature being a new national life tabic, which, in the actuary’s words, “confirms the generally accepted vi w that the vitality of the nation has been steadily improving.” More than seven years have been added to the life of the average child since 1906. Two and three-quarter years have been added to the life of a young man of twenty, an,d all but three years to the life of a young woman of twenty. The “expectation of life” of both men and women has increased at every age except at the age of ninety. Women live longer than men, married women after the age of thirty-seven live longer than single women or widows and the rates of mortality /or widows arc invariably heavier than those for single women or wives. The improvement in vitality, it is observed, is specially marked at the youngest ages. The probability of a child dying in the first year of age is found to ‘have decreased by about 40 per cent, during the fifteen years between 1906 and 1921.