At the beginning of the 20th century, life expectancy at birth was 47.3 years, and it now is 77 years. An individual who is now aged 65 can expect to live an average of 18 more years, while those now 75 can expect to live 11 more years. The average life expectancy for a Canadian female is 81.2 years while that of an average Canadian male is 75.2 years. Compare that with the average expectancy of the average American female of 78.9 years and the average American male of 72.5 years. Strangely enough women are at a much greater risk of being afflicted with Alzheimer's disease than are men.
Women are twice as likely to be affected by major depression than men are.
Hispanics are twice as likely to die from diabetes than are non-Hispanic whites. The least educated and the poorest suffer the worst health status. The progress that is made in our health for the next decade will be monitored through 467 objectives in 28 focus areas. Please see this report for further details.