Latest tables confirm longer living male

Figures in the Continuous Mortality Investigation suggest male mortality rates for a given age improved 20% in the past 10 years, compared with a 5% improvement for women. Covering the 1999-2000 period, the numbers show women still live longer than men, but compared with the previous series covering 1991-1994 the gap is clearly narrowing. Other analysis of the figures suggests mortality rates for smokers are twice those of non-smokers, with considerable differences noticed in the 50 to 80 age group. This means, for example, that a non-smoker aged 45 is twice as likely to live to a...