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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Jun 2.
Published in final edited form as: Annu Rev Econom. 2009 Jun 1;1:543–562. doi: 10.1146/annurev.economics.050708.142955

Table 2.

Relative subjective survival to age 75 and relative actual survival 1992 to 2006

Personal or household characteristic P75 Actual survival
Sex Male 0.947 0.902
Female 1.000 1.000
Education Less than high-school 0.810 0.847
High school graduate 0.916 0.943
Some college 0.972 0.945
College graduate 1.000 1.000
Wealth Lowest quartile 0.836 0.792
2 0.880 0.912
3 0.970 0.951
Highest quartile 1.000 1.000
Income Lowest quartile 0.816 0.782
2 0.908 0.909
3 0.942 0.966
Highest quartile 1.000 1.000
Current smoking Yes 0.891 0.803
No 1.000 1.000
Current drinking Doesn’t drink 1.000 1.000
less than 1 drink per day 1.123 1.065
1-2 per day 1.112 1.037
3-4 per day 0.996 0.933
5+ per day 0.896 0.804

Source: Author’s calculations based on HRS

Note: Relative subjective survival is the ratio of average P75 of one group to average P75 of a reference group. Relative actual survival is a similar ratio based on actual survival from 1992 to 2006. The subjective survival and actual survival ratios are calculated over the same individuals.