Quotation of the Day…

by Don Boudreaux on May 31, 2015

in Data, Health, Seen and Unseen

… is from page 64 of Angus Deaton’s excellent 2013 book, The Great Escape:

Saving the lives of children has a bigger effect on life expectancy than saving the lives of the elderly.  A newborn who might have died but does not has the chance to live many more years, which is not the case when a 70-year-old is pulled through a life-threatening crisis.  This is also one of the reasons why the rate of increase in life expectancy has slowed down in recent years; mortality among children is now so low that progress can only really take place among older adults, among whom reductions in mortality rates have smaller effects on life expectancy.

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