WHERE PEOPLE LIVE THE LONGEST.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 19, 7 May 1892, Page 478

WHERE PEOPLE LIVE THE LONGEST.

Asa matter of fact, the average life of all the babies that come into the world is only about thirty-eight years ; very few live to be over ninety, and not more than one out of 2,000 sees his hundredth birthday. Is this due to original differences in the babies themselves or in the way they are brought up, in the places in which they live, in the air they breathe and in their mode of life after they become full grown 1 To answer these questions one of the first things we want to know is whether people die equally fast everywhere, and if not, where is it that they die soonest or live longest ? The answer to this is that people die much mote rapidly in some countries than in others. For instance, they die twice as fast in Hungary as they do in Sweden. In the year 1889 out of every 1,000 persons living in the following countries there died: In England, 18 ; in Norway, 17 ; in Sweden, 16 ;in Austria, 27; in Hungary, 32 ; in Germany, 23 ; in France, 21 ; in Italy, 25. How many died in the United States we do not know ; because no account of them was kept in the greater part of the country ; but it was probably 17 or 18 out of each 1,000 living. We do know, however, that they die faster in some cities than in others. For example, out of each 1,000 people living there died during the year ending May 31, 1890, in New York city, 27 ; in Brooklyn, 25 ; in Boston, 24 ; in Philadelphia, 22 ; in Chicago, 21 ; in Detroit, 20; in St. Louis, 19, and in Minneapolis, 15 ; while in the country districts the loss was only 11 or 12 out of each 1,000. Also, we know that they died faster in some parts of the same city than they did in others ; thus, the death rate per 1,000 in Boston in the Eighth ward was 33, while in the Twenty-fourth ward it was 18. In Brooklyn, in the Fifth ward, it was 33, and in the Twenty-fourth ward, 18; and in Philadelphia it was 34 in the Fourth ward and 14 in the Thirty-third ward.