Live long and prosper lads.
A new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has revealed that life expectancy in Ireland is at an all-time high and that it increased by 15 years on average between 1950 and 2012.
The average Irish person can now expect to live to age 81 as opposed to 66 in 1950, although, we suppose, the real craic will start when that figure reaches 90.
Those revelations are included amongst a number of interesting findings in the study, which examined how mortality rates in Ireland vary across different socio-economic groups and was carried out by the ESRI, Trinity College Dublin, and NUI Maynooth.
The study shows that a growing gap has emerged in life expectancy across social groups. For example, death rates for male manual workers were 100% higher than among professional groups in the 1980s, with the percentage increasing to 140% during the 2000s.
While it was not possible to determine exactly why such a disparity exists, the study suggests that suicide among younger unemployed men and increasing death rates from industrial and farming accidents during the economic boom may have been a contributing factor.
It was also revealed that the death rate in the geographic area with the highest rate was four times that of the area with the lowest rate in 2011.
The findings discussed above and more revelations can be seen in the study here.
Commenting on the research, Professor Richard Layte (TCD/ESRI) said: “This is the first analysis of the way that differentials in mortality changed during the last three decades in Ireland.
“The good news is that life expectancy for all groups in Ireland is at an all-time high. The bad news is that the gap between groups has increased. This project attempts to understand why and what we can do about it.”
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