HEALTHIER THAN MEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1940, Page 8

HEALTHIER THAN MEN

AMERICAN WOMEN. Women of the United States are growing healthier than the men, and their superiority is so great that in every decade of life, from cradle to old age, fewer females die than males. A clear-cut surplus of women is in prospect as a result of this trend, figures published today by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company indicate. The superior ability of the women to escape death covers the present century up to 1937, the last year when data are available. During this period, the death rate of white male babies under one year old decreased 61 per cent; of girls, 63.' At 20. the young men’s death rate dropped 57 per cent; the young women, 65. At 40, the men were down 40 per cent; the women, 52. At 60, males experienced a reduction in mortality of less than 7 per cent, against 26 for the women. Social trends that may flow from such a female surplus are mentioned in a separate analysis of European nations where, due to the last war, theie were for a time surpluses of women of marriageable age with a shortage of husbands. One result was marriage of older men to young women, with increasing divorce and a drop in childbearing.