WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- Older U.S. adults are richer and live longer, but U.S. life expectancy at age 65 is lower than in other industrialized countries, U.S. researchers said.
The report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics found the proportion of older people with incomes below the poverty line went from 15 percent to 9 percent. Those with low income dropped from 35 percent to 26 percent and those with high incomes increased from 18 percent to 29 percent.
Median net worth for households headed by whites age 65 and older was six times that of older black households, although the gap has slightly narrowed since 2003, the report said.
U.S. life expectancy is lower than that of many high-income countries, such as Canada, France, Sweden and Japan. For example, in 2003, women age 65 in Japan could expect to live 3.2 years more on average than women in the United States, with the difference among men at 1.2 years.
Thirty-nine percent of people age 75 and over had below basic health literacy -- the extent to which people can obtain, process and understand basic health information and services -- compared with 23 percent of people ages 65 to 74 and 13 percent of people ages 50 to 64.
