Chilton County’s death rates are higher in eight categories than the state average, causing the life expectancy to about four years less compared to the rest of the state.

In a recent demographics study by Auburn University-Montgomery, the county’s death rate from accident was determined to be double the state average, and the suicide rate is 75 percent higher the entire state.

Other areas the county is higher than the state average include infant mortality, infant mortality for whites, infant mortality for minorties, death rate from cancer, death rate from heart disease and death rate from chronic lower respiratory disease.

All of these rates have caused the life expectancy of the county to be 71.5 years. The state average is 75.1, and the U.S. average is 77.8.

The numbers were released in the 2008 Alabama Health Data Sheet released by the AUM Center for Demographic Diversity. The study was prepared and produced in a collaboration between the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Center for Health Statistics.

The sheet contains information from estimated population to health statistics from the year 2006.

Other statistics show that the percent of all births in the county to unmarried women is lower than the state average. The marriage and divorce rates were also higher than the state average. There were 10.3 marriages and 5.3 divorces per 1,000 of the population.

The gonorrhea rate was one-fourth of the state average. The diabetes death rate was half of Alabama’s rate. The death rates for homicide and stroke were also lower locally.

Chilton County’s population was estimated to be 41,750 and the state’s population was 4.6 million. Of the county population, only 4,992 were minorities for 12 percent of the county population.

A quarter of the county population is under age 20, and 13 percent is over 65.

–Brent Maze can be reached at brent.maze@clantonadvertiser.com.