Mortality and Marital Status

A NUMIBER of analvses lhave slhowin that married people live longier thani single people.The most recent analysis published for the United States was for 1940 (1), and the figures clearly showecl the lower mortality rates for the nmarried population.In the years siince 1940, there has been a tremendous change igi mortality rates and a distinct increase in the married proportion of the population.In the liglht of these changes, it is of particular initerest to reexamine the mortality rates by mlarital status based on the 1950 census.Population BaseIn the 1950 census (2), data oni marital status were based on the replies to the question, "Is he (she) now married, widowed, divorced, sepa- rated, or has he niever been m-arried?"The question referred to status at tlle time of enumeration.Persons classified as married comprise, therefore, both those who liave been mn-arried only once, those wlho remarried after hlaving beeni widowed or divorced, and persons reported as separated.Those reported as never married or with annulled marriages were classi- fied as single.Since it is probable that sonie (livorced persons were reported as single, mar- mlied, or wido-wed, the cenisuis retuirnis doubtless understated soiiewhat the actual niumiiber of divorced persomms who have not remnariried.The distribution of the population by niiarital status for each age-sex group is shown in table 1.Most men were single at ages 20-24 years.but they sooni got married; 3 out of 4 meni were