22 November 2017

Comparing Canadian and UK Vital Statistics

According to a 20 November UK Office of National Statistics publication Vital statistics: population and health reference tables  in the UK a newborn baby boy could expect to live 79.2 years and a newborn baby girl 82.9 years. That's if mortality rates remain the same as they were in 2014 to 2016 throughout their lives.

The 2012/2014 statistics for Canada, the latest available, have life expectancy at birth as 79.7 years for men and 83.9 years for women. That's slightly longer than in the UK. Both countries show a narrowing gender gap for life expectancy.

Infant mortality in the UK was 3.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged since 2013, the lowest rate on record. That compares to 4.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in Canada in 2014, itself the lowest rate observed in Canadian history.

This suggests to me that when historical statistics are missing for Canada, or vice versa, those from the other are a reasonable approximation.



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