Comparing population health in the United States and Canada

Table 5 Comparisons of Health, Poverty, and Income Inequality in Canada and the United States

	Canada	United States	Canada - US
Life Expectancy at Birth in years^a	79.7	77.2	2.5
Infant Mortality Rate, deaths per 1,000 live births^a	5.4	7	-1.6
Life Expectancy at Age 19 in years	60.6^b	58.3^b	2.3
Poverty rate^c in %	12	17	-5
Poverty rate^c among the elderly in %	6	23	-17
Gini coefficient^e	0.32	0.38	-0.06
Health-adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE)in years^f	52.0	49.3	2.7
Counterfactual #1, HALE in Canada with Canadian morbidity and US mortality	49.9	HALE Canada actual - #1 = 1.8
Counterfactual #2, HALE in Canada with US morbidity and Canadian mortality	50.8	HALE Canada actual - #2 = 0.9

^aEstimates for 2002 [2]
^bBased on 2003 Life Tables for Canada [40, 41] and 2003 Life Tables for the US [83].
^cBased on Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development estimates 2008; [55]; OECD average 11%.
^dBased on Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development estimates 2008; [55].
^eOrganization for Economic Co-Operation and Development estimates 2008; [55]; OECD average 0.31.
^fBased on mean HUI3 score by age category observed in JCUSH and life tables for 2002-2003 for Canada and the United States. The difference between the US and Canadian estimates of HALE is significant at p < 0.0001.

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