History: WI Life Expectancy is 57.7 (1938)

Contact: Kenneth Wood
Email: woodi1999@yahoo.com

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald Thursday May 5, 1938 Page 7

LIFE EXPECTANCY AGE REACHES 57

Greatest Span in State Annals, Claims State Bureau of Statistics

Madison--Wisconsin residents in 1937 reached an average life expectancy of 57.7 years, the greatest span in state annals, the bureau of vital statistics announced today.

The upward trend of the average age at death has been interrupted only five times since 1910, the bureau said. In that year the average was 40 years. New records have been set in the last three years.

Francis Kester, senior statistician, cited a t 200 deaths at ages less than one year as a big factor in th! e 1937 upturn.

"Wisconsin's population is showing a gradual increase in average age due to a current decrease in births, to conservation of infant and child life, and possibly a more recent trend in which adults are protecting themselves against early onset of organic diseases which can be postponed through careful personal habits," Kester said.