Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Do Israelis really live longer?



According to this Jerusalem Post article they do. Israeli men live on average to almost 80, while Israeli women live to an average of more than 83, they ecstatically announce.

One thing that I aways wonder about when such statistics are compared with world statistics, is whether the phenomenon of "Aliyah" (immigration to Israel in comparitively large numbers compared with other countries) doesn't skew the figures in Israel's favour?

You see Israel has a relatively high percentage of immigrants who move to the country in middle - or even old - age. Obviously people who die young or are too sick to move don't come - so doesn't that skew the figures?

I posted a message to this effect on the JP site, but it was not "chosen for publication". Seems a sensible enough observation to me. Am I missing something here? Bertrand's Box Paradox? Comments anyone?