Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Evening the Sex Ratio Among Old People

One of the surprising findings of the new census is that the ratio of old men to old women is evening out. From middle age on there are always more women than men, with the gap widening to about two-to-one by the time people are 85. However, older men are surviving at a higher rate than they used to.

Since 2000, the number of women 60 - 74 has increased by 29.2%. The number of men in that age rage increased by 35.2%

There will probably never be an equal ratio of old men to old women, but things do seem to be evening a bit.

My nominee for the cause: the declining smoking rate.

2 comments:

Kerri said...

I think folks are generally eating better, too. And my theory is-- because men don't gain weight as easily as ladies, they tend to eat fattier foods for more years.

Solomon Kleinsmith said...

A lot of that has to do with job stress as well. If they've made it to retirement, they've about evened out as far as day to day stress goes.