Life expectancy for Quebec men and women hits new high

Life expectancy rates in Quebec continue to climb.

Men in Quebec can now expect to live to the age of 80.8 and women to 84.5,according a studyreleased by the Institut de la statistique du Qubec(ISQ), Quebec's statistics institute, on Tuesday.

That's a jump of sevenmonths for menand fourmonths for women in a single yearalmost double the average annual increase in longevity since 1996.

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• Life expectancy in Canada hits 80 for men, 84 for women

Lifeexpectancyrepresents the averagenumber of years that a personis expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply.

Flu took a toll

The sharp increase in life expectancy in 2016 came after a five-year periodin which the rate of increase in Quebecers' life expectancy was lower than it had been in the fifteen previous years.

"In the last threeor fouryears, we were asking ourselves if the life expectancy was slowing down," said Frdric Fleury-Payeur, a demographer at theinstitute.

Payeur said some researchers even wonderedwhether we were reaching our peakof life expectancy.

Demographers now believe the slump in the increase in life expectancy from 2011 to 2015 was due to a rash of flu deaths that killed many seniors.

Overall, in the past decade, life expectancy has increased: men saw a 69 per cent increase in the likelihood of living past 60, while women saw an 80 per cent increase.

The number of centenarians has steadilyincreasedevery year.

There were more than 750 Quebecers who died in 2015 who were past the 100-year mark.