How Long, How Long?

The length of time a newborn U.S. citizen could expect to live increased between 1930 and 1940 from 59 to 63.3 years. This striking conclusion on life in general and the depression years in particular was reported last week, on the basis of 48-state data, by the U.S. Public Health

Service. At the century's turn the expectation of life at birth was less than 50 years. Other new data:

> Newborn white males can now expect to live 62.6 years; Negro males, 52 years; white females, 67 years; Negro females, 55.2 years. Percentage increase in the expectation of life at all ages was more than twice as large for Negroes as for whites. One reason: "This [white] population is much closer to the maximum expectation of life attainable with present knowledge than is the Negro population." >"One of the most gratifying features," said the report by Statistician Harold F. Dorn, "was the uninterrupted decline in the maternal mortality rate which previous to 1930 had shown no decline since . . . 1915. . . . This rate declined 48% among white mothers and 34% among nonwhite mothers. In 1940 the two rates were 3.2 and 7.7 per 1,000 live births, respectively." >Death rate of infants under one year dropped 28% for both whites and Negroes. Of 1,000 white babies born, 43 now die in their first year. Of 1,000 Negro babies, 74 die.

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