How long will you live? Longer than you think, study finds

How long will you live? Longer than you think, study finds

How long will you live? Probably much longer than you think, the Washington Post reports.

In 1992, the University of Michigan's Health and Retirement Study asked 26,000 Americans over the age of 50 what they thought the chances were they'd live to the age of 75. Now, nearly 24 years later, researchers at the Brookings Institution have calculated to see if they were right.

"In general, people wildly underestimated their chances of reaching 75," Christopher Ingraham writes on the Post's Wonk Blog.

• In 1992, 7 percent of respondents gave themselves "zero" chance to reach 75. But nearly half (49.2 percent) lived to 75 or longer.

• Among respondents who gave themselves a 50 percent chance of living to 75, 75 percent lived to that age or longer.

• And among those who said they were "100 percent" certain of living to the age of 75, nearly 8 in 10 (78.2 percent) did.

 

Life expectancy in the United States was 78.74 years in 2012, according to World Bank data, and 71 years worldwide.

There is no clear relationship between how long people think they'll live, and how long they actually do, Ingraham notes.

In fact, respondents who gave themselves at least a 10 percent chance of living to 75 had at least a 60 percent chance of doing so.

Your best bet that you'll live to 75? Thinking you have a 90 percent chance, the study concluded.