Homeless person has a life expectancy of 47

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http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/12December/Pages/homeless-people-die-early.aspx

The new research found that the average homeless person has a life expectancy of 47, compared to 77 for the rest of the population: a startling difference of 30 years. The life expectancy for women was even lower, at just 43 years.

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Welcome back @everhopeful !

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Thanks very much Andrey!

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Please allow me to copy the key points onto here (for those who are too busy to read the full article).

The key points of the initial findings of the research are:

  1. The average age of death of a homeless person is 47 (43 for homeless women), compared to 77 for the general population.
  1. Drug and alcohol abuse are particularly common causes of death among the homeless population, accounting for just over a third of all deaths.
  2. Homeless people are more than nine times more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
  3. Homeless people are more likely to die from external causes. Deaths as a result of traffic accidents are three times as likely, infections twice as likely and falls more than three times as likely for homeless people.
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I don’t doubt this. I live in NYC and see very unhealthy homless people each day. I have given them food, clothes, and blankets in the winter.

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I believe it. It is a harsh life to live.

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I lived in my auto in America over two years, what I noticed was that my physical health started depreciating, eventually I left America for the better life in Europe. There are all kinds of dangers when one lives on the streets.

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During the brief times I was homeless I was starting to realize that there is a predatory aspect to living on the street. If a person keeps their wits about them, and keeps their eyes open and their mouths shut, they can probably stay away from it, but not very many people on the street have their wits about them. That’s why they are living on the street.

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