Figure 6
U.S. Life Expectancy at Birth, Male (1999)
80.9
77.2
74.7
72.9
68.4
African
American
White (Non-
His panic
As ian
American
Indian
His panic)
American
Source: National Projections Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, January 13, 2000.
Like the life expectancy rate, the U.S. infant
tems because, throughout the developed
mortality rate is a composite average.50
world, there is very little correlation between
health care spending and life expectancy.
Overall, the chances that an infant will die at
While a good health care system may, by
birth vary widely according to such factors as
intervention, extend the life of a small per-
race, geography, income, and education:
centage of a population, it has very little to
• Race:
do with the average life span of the whole
According to the National
population. Instead, the number of years a
Center for Health Statistics, in 1997,
person will live is primarily a result of genet-
the mortality rate (per 1,000 live
ic and social factors, including lifestyle, envi-
births) for infants born to black
ronment, and education.47
mothers was 13.7 compared to 8.7
for American Indian mothers, 7.9 for
As Figure 6 shows, the American popula-
Puerto Rican mothers, 6.0 for non-
tion is a mixture of ethnic groups with strik-
Hispanic white mothers, and 5.0 for
ingly different expected life spans. In 1999,
Asian mothers.51
male life expectancy at birth ranged from 80.9
• Geography: Among the 60 largest U.S.
years for Asian Americans, 77.2 for Hispanics,
In New Zealand
74.7 years for white non-Hispanics, and 72.9
cities, infant mortality ranged from a
years for American Indians to 68.4 years for
high of 15.4 (Memphis) to a low of 4.5
and the United
African Americans.48 Ethnic differences in life
(Seattle); among U.S. states, rates varied
Kingdom nearly
from a high of 10.2 (Alabama) to a low of
spans tend to persist, and, thus, the relative
4.4 (New Hampshire).52
half of all women
diversity of the U.S. population partly
• Income and education: Infants born to
accounts for the lower overall longevity rates
diagnosed with
in the United States compared with other
low-income mothers who did not
breast cancer die
developed countries.
finish high school were about 50 per-
The infant mortality rate in the United
cent more likely to die than infants
of the disease. By
whose mothers finished college.53
States is higher than the average among
contrast, in the
developed countries, at 7.2 deaths per 1,000
United States
live births in 1998, compared to an average of
These factors have nothing to do with the
about 5.0.49 Why does the United States have
quality of (or access to) health care.
only one in
A better measure of a country's health care
a much higher infant mortality rate than
four dies.
system is mortality rates for those diseases that
countries with comparable living standards?
8