Average age at death by Age at retirement

This is something we all would like to believe is true - that there is an inverse relationship between the age we retire and the age that we expect to die. According to a study conducted by Dr. Ephrem, based on data of pensioners from Boeing Aerospace, the earlier we retire, the longer our life span is going to be. For example, if we retire at around the age of 50, we would expect to live to age 86, another 26 years old. In contrast, if we retire later at age 65, we would expect to live only for another 2 years. Normal retirement age is 65, and yet this study supports only another 2 years of life span. However, we need to understand the biases created by this result - this experience is based on one particular group and may not apply to everybody in the broadest sense. But it seems to make sense that if we do retire early, we could escape from the pressure of work and could expect to live longer. Just as with any other results of experience data, we have to be cautious.

Very interesting and almost too clean a relationship. Looks like this was based on a sample of people from Boeing. Would be great to get the same data across a large sample.

My guess is that people who are wealthy are able to retire earlier and have 1) less stress over money in general and it's detrimental impacts to the human body and 2) the ability to pay for high quality medical care that is likely to extend one's life. Additional contributors might be that they have more time to exercise and take care of themselves because their not working...

My thoughts exactly. They can afford expensive screening tests for preventative medicine as well.

Selbst wenn große Vorsicht bei der Interpretation der Graphik geboten ist, weil viele Parameter der Untersuchung (mir) nicht bekannt sind, drückt die Graphik doch einen gleichermaßen einfachen wie schrecklichen Zusammenhang aus: Wer das Pensionsalter nach oben setzt, raubt den Menschen Lebensjahre! Und wie nennt man ganz allgemein Menschen, die anderen das Leben rauben? Ja, ja, genau so...!

Good comment. But it is an economy-based world in which we live that set these rules - not just employers making people work longer. Many people need to work for financial reasons - esp in the US where Social Security is not enough to live on. Will be interesting to see how the shorter work-weeks in Europe will affect length of life, economic security of retired individuals, care for the aging population, etc.

Based on this study, the relationship is between retirement and death, thus, can one state that if one does not retire...one will not die? :-)

That's quite a relationship! Work 15 years longer, die 20 years longer. Time to retire.

What I meant to say:

That's quite a relationship! Work 15 years longer, die 20 years younger.

If one never works, will one live forever?

Data is for ages 50 to 65. Extrapolating the relationship outside this band - use with precaution.

What this shows is that wealthier people (who can afford to retire earlier) live longer.

How many people were used in this study?
That is a critical piece of information. If it's only a few hundred people then the study really means nothing at all.

I am one of those who retired young -- age 52. I am not one of the wealthy and although my income was severely reduced, because my job was VERY stressful (entertainment law), I was convinced I wouldn't live to normal retirement age. That was 14 years ago, and I am healthier and happier now than I ever was before retirement.

So the thing to do if you have already worked to 65, especially if you work for Boeing, is to keep working until you are over 67, and, once you have crashed through the two year expectancy, pioneer your own statistics... Or just go surfing.

This is fascinating, esp. because my father-in-law retired from Boeing (!) at 65 and was dead less than 2 years later(!).

The obvious message from all this is that it is preferable not to die.

How much many more years would a person want to live before they die? I would want at least 10.

Aa big terrorist attack that wipes of humanity......then what happens to the graph!

A cynic would interpret this data correlation, as to the specific company in question works its employees (nearly) to death.

To clarify this further, one would need to know how many people died before retirement (at this company).

Just had to express this thought ;-)