India by the Numbers: According to the Population Reference Bureau's 2000 World Data Sheets, life expectancy at birth for Indians is between 60 and 61 years. This was also confirmed by the most recent Census of India in 2001. Only 4% of our population is over the age of 65%. In parts of the world with much better access to medicine and healthcare, these numbers are substantially higher. In Japan, for example, nearly 17% of the population is aged over 65 years. And the average Japanese, with a life-expectancy of 80 years, lives fully a third longer than the average Indian.

• Population Reference Bureau.
  
• The 1991 Census of India

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    STATE           TOTAL   MALE    FEMALE

Andhra Pradesh      63.1    61.6    64.1
Assam               57.2    57.1    57.6
Bihar               60.2    60.7    58.9
Gujarat             62.8    61.9    63.7
Haryana             64.5    64.1    65.0
Himachal Pradesh    65.6    65.1    65.8
Karnataka           64.0    62.4    65.5
Kerala              73.5    70.6    76.1
Madhya Pradesh      56.4    56.5    56.2
Maharastra          65.8    64.5    67.0
Orissa              57.7    57.6    57.8
Punjab              68.1    66.9    69.1
Rajastan            60.5    59.8    60.9
Tamilnadu           64.6    63.7    65.7
Uttar Pradesh       58.4    58.9    57.7
West Bengal         63.4    62.8    64.3
India               61.7    60.8    62.5
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Source: Registrar General of India (2003) SRS Based Abridged Lefe Tables, SRS Analytical Studies, Report No. 3 of 2003, New Delhi: Registrar General of India. The data is for the 1995-99 period; states subsequently divided are therefore included in their pre-partition states (Chhatisgarh in MP, Uttaranchal in UP and Jharkhand in Bihar).