What percentage of people live to age 70?

It’s the classic three score year & ten isn’t it? Don’t know about the percentages but people are living longer & longer.Somehow 70 seems relatively young in the big scheme of things.

Do you mean in a specific country or around the world as the statistics for longevity are strikingly different from country to country (and within the US, even from state to state and county to county). If you indicate which country, I can probably find the stats, but for the US, the latest population breakdown is available here from the US Census Bureau. You can calculate the percentage from the linked chart. You will also be able to see the trend that women live longer than men.

The US Census Bureau is the repository of all this information (you can get the same chart on virtually anything asked on the census). It will take a little time for the statisticians and data entry folks to add the 2010 data, but keep checking back at the general site (look down the left hand column and select “population” and you will see a boatload of choices for some surprisingly interesting data).

In public health, we depend on these kinds of charts to note changing patterns in longevity and other elements of population demographics that give clues as to what is going on in a population. We always frame our questions in the context of what is going on in a population at a given time and place as data can differ so widely over time and from place to place.

Here is a link to an article about life spans around the world and the contributing factors to locations where people typically live longer (or shorter) amounts of time. One of the links in the article will take you here which may address your question more completely.

Just to clarify, I am not talking about life expectancy. I can get that information from multiple sources. I an talking about the percentage chance of a person making the age of 70. I.e out of 100 people I went to school with how many will live to 70 years old? And I doubt very much this that this figure differs significantly state to state.

You will need to find a life chart for the population that you are examining, and find lx (small el of x) for the span of years you wish to quantify. It will tell you the number of the cohort which survived to age 70, or which is expected to live to age 70, but generally life charts are organized in intervals of five years (e.g. 0–4, 5–9, 10–14…). I would begin in the demographics division of the United Nations.

It depends on what age you are right now. For example, 77% of 20-year-olds will survive to age 70. Here is the chart you can play with.

@marinelife that is a life-expectancy table, not a life chart. They differ in that life charts provide exact numbers, expectancy tables use statistical modeling.

@dpworkin Did you look at the correct table, which was the third one down: Survival.

I understand. It is different from what the OP asked for, although I expect it would be equally useful unless strictly accurate data were needed for some scholarly reason.

There is a 100% chance I will reach 70. That’s not helpful, I know. It’s pretty hard to quantify all the variables, however.

I don’t even think about how long I will live, I just live NOW.
Thats all there is…the present moment.

Just contemplating how long one will live is not living in the now, it is projecting into a future that simply does not exist!

I could die in 5 minutes or I could live another 55 years…either/or, I’m good!

Averages at the age of death are often are made by the number of children who die in the earliest years of life—so if a person makes it through the earliest years, the chances of living longer might be better than what the average suggests. Anyway, I know they must have tables for this—check with life insurance companies—they should know down to the minute!

Actuarial tables can provide predictive value for determining likelihood of survival to a given age.

So nobody on here can answer this question by giving an approximate percentage?

You can find out here

Must I really look it up for you?