By the time we are over 65-70 years (depending on sex), we have at least a 1 in 100 chance of dying in the next years, rising to 1 in 10 over 85 years.Īnother way of representing the data could be in the form of a Paling Perspective Scale, and one version of this using some truncated data is shown in Figure 2. There is a clear tendency for the lowest annual risk of death in children and young adults, with greater risk for the very young and very old. Table 1: Annual risk of death by age and sex in the UKįigure 1: Annual risk of death by age and sex in the UK These have been recalculated to show the results as an annual risk - a chance of 1 in X of dying in the next year (on average), by your age and by your sex. For that reason we thought it useful to have a reminder of the major effects on death rates - namely our sex, and our age.ĭata were taken from UK national mortality statistics, which provides death rates per million population by age and sex. We look at tax rates with some interest, but give death rates much less attention, except when they are forced on us by some catastrophe, societal or personal.
Someone once said that the only certainties in this world were death and taxes. The older you are, the greater is your risk of dying in any one year.
Risk of death by age and sex Clinical bottom line
