Life expectancy for Cascadian jurisdictions calculated from BC Stats, "Population and Demographics: Vital Measures," www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/popstart.asp; Washington Center for Health Statistics, "Death Data," www.doh.wa.gov/ehsphl/chs/chs-data/death/dea_VD.htm; and Idaho Bureau of Health Policy and Vital Statistics, Kathy Simplot and Pam Harder. For Oregon, Sightline calculated life expectancy using data from the Oregon Center for Health Statistics, the Center for Population Research and Census at Portland State University, and the US Census Bureau. For long-term and sub-regional trends trends Sightline also consulted US National Center for Health Statistics, "Compressed Mortality File (CMF) compiled from CMF 1968-1988, Series 20, No. 2A 2000," "CMF 1989-1998, Series 20, No. 2E 2003," and "CMF 1999-2002, Series 20, No. 2H 2004," and "CMF 1999-2005, Series 20 No. 2K, 2008" on the CDC WONDER On-line Database, wonder.cdc.gov/mortSQL.html.
Cascadian life expectancy in 1900 estimated by Sightline from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vital Statistics of the United States 1970, Volume 2, "Section 5: Life Tables," www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/lifetables/life70.pdf, especially Table 5-5, "Estimated Average Length of Life in Years, by Color and Sex: Death-Registration States, 1900-1928 and United States, 1929-1970." US life expectancy in 1900 was 47.3 years. Sightline estimated that life expectancy in Cascadia was slightly higher than the US average in 1900, as consistently has been the case since reliable data have been available.
Correlation between life expectancy and other measures of health, including healthy life expectancy and infant mortality, derived by Sightline from international comparisons, using data from World Health Organization Statistical Information System, "Evidence and Information for Health Policy," www.who.int/whosis/en.
(Sources updated January 2009.)