For the holiday season, I decided to make the serious topic of longevity a little more entertaining. In some cases, it is easy to see how lifespan might be affected by what one does for a living; consider for example coal miners or test pilots. For most lines of work, though, any connection is less obvious.
In the chart below, I have taken athletes, actors and scientists who were born between 1890 and 1920. This period was chosen since no one from that era is still alive and the period is short enough that everyone should expect the same lifespan, all other things being equal.
Does your choice of career affect how long
you can expect to live?
Distribution of life spans by profession
Everyone from
25th to 75th percentile
Everyone else
Outliers
110
100
Median
lifespan
90
80
Age
70
60
50
40
30
Olympic athletes
Football players
Actors
Scientists
the globe and mail, Source: frederik vettese
Does your choice of career affect how long
you can expect to live?
Distribution of life spans by profession
Everyone from
25th to 75th percentile
Everyone else
Outliers
110
100
Median
lifespan
90
80
Age
70
60
50
40
30
Olympic athletes
Football players
Actors
Scientists
the globe and mail, Source: frederik vettese
Does your choice of career affect how long you can expect to live?
Distribution of life spans by profession
Everyone from
25th to 75th percentile
Everyone else
Outliers
110
100
Median
lifespan
90
80
Age
70
60
50
40
30
Olympic athletes
Football players
Actors
Scientists
the globe and mail, Source: frederik vettese
Each box in the chart captures everyone from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile. The middle line in the box is the median life span. The outside vertical lines capture everyone else except for a few outliers, as shown by the small circles. The “x” is the average life span.
The Olympic athletes all participated in track and field in the 1948 Olympic games and represented different countries. Fully 25 per cent of them lived until age 92. Their longevity is particularly impressive given they generally did not benefit from the mortality improvements of the past 20 years. It suggests a strong connection between vigorous physical activity and longevity.
While football players are also athletic, it is not surprising that they did not live as long as the Olympic athletes given the long-term impact of concussions. A more recent generation of football players might fare even worse as drug-taking has become more prevalent and players have become bigger, likely leading to more severe injuries.
On average, actors do not live quite as long as football players. Actors also have a wider range of lifespans, which can be explained perhaps by lifestyle and drugs. The biggest surprise in the chart is the wide range of lifespans in the case of scientists. One would think they would lead a more prudent or sedate lifestyle than the average person and generally live longer.
To ensure there was no age bias, the names were taken from an Internet list of the most prominent athletes, actors and scientists of the 20th century. No one was on the list because they died so young or lived so long. In total, the list included 371 names.
Frederick Vettese is former Chief Actuary of Morneau Shepell and author of the PERC retirement calculator (perc-pro.ca)
Frederick Vettese