Wow.. din actually know Singapore has the 5th longest life
expectancy in the world 
How come? Clean air, good food, good healthcare?
(...oh no, forgotten my human geography stuff 
)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/09/12/life.expectancy.ap/index.html
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The life expectancy for Americans is
nearly 78 years, the longest in U.S. history, according to new
government figures from 2005 released Wednesday.
A drop in deaths from heart disease and stroke helped boost the
U.S. life expectancy to almost 78 years in 2005.
That age, based on the latest data available, was still lower than
the life span in more than three dozen other countries,
however.
More bad news: The annual number of U.S. deaths rose from 2004 to
2005, a depressing uptick after the figure had dropped by 50,000
from 2003 to 2004. In 2005, the number of deaths increased by about
that same amount.
U.S. life expectancy at birth inched up to 77.9 from the previous
record, 77.8, recorded for 2004. The increase was more dramatic in
contrast with 1995, when life expectancy was 75.8, and 1955, when
it was 69.6.
The improvement was led by a drop in deaths from heart disease and
stroke -- two of the nation's leading killers, according to the
National Center for Health Statistics, which released the new life
expectancy report Wednesday.
"If death rates from certain leading causes of death continue to
decline, we should continue to see improvements in life
expectancy," said Hsiang-Ching Kung, in a prepared statement. Kung
is a survey statistician who co-authored the report.
The report also described a slight increase in the infant mortality
rate, from 6.8 per 1,000 live births in 2004 to 6.9 in 2005. But
researchers said the increase was not statistically
significant.
The report is based on about 99 percent of the death records
reported in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for
2005.
A final report will be released later, and the numbers may change a
little. Last year, when releasing its preliminary death data for
2004, the government reported a 77.9 life expectancy. That figure
later dropped to 77.8 in the final report.
In the 2005 preliminary report, researchers counted 2,447,910
deaths, up about 2 percent from the 2,397,615 in 2004.
The 2004 count had been a 2 percent drop from 2003 -- the biggest
decline in nearly 70 years.
Researchers also noted continued differences by race and sex. Life
expectancy for whites in 2005 was 78.3, the same as it was in 2004.
Black life expectancy rose from 73.1 in 2004 to 73.2 in 2005, but
it was still nearly five years lower than the white figure.
Life expectancy for women continues to be five years longer than
for men, the report also found.
The age-adjusted death rate for heart disease dropped from 217
deaths per 100,000 in 2004 to about 210 in 2005, and actual deaths
dropped from about 652,500 to about 649,000. The stroke rate
dropped from 50 per 100,000 to about 46.5, and the number of stroke
deaths dropped from about 150,000 to 143,500.
But the count of cancer deaths rose from about 554,000 to about
559,000, according to the report.
And there were 5 percent increases in the rates for Alzheimer's
disease, the No. 7 leading cause of death, and for Parkinson's
disease, which was No. 14.
The United States
continues to lag behind at least 40 other nations. Andorra, a tiny
country in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, has the
longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau. Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore ranked
second, third, fourth and fifth.
