Global Life Expectancy Up 6 Years Since 1990

Medical journal The Lancet has reported that life expectancy across the globe has increased by six years since 1990.

According to their snappily named report entitled Global, regional, and national age–sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 "Global life expectancy for both sexes increased from 65·3 years (UI 65·0–65·6) in 1990, to 71·5 years (UI 71·0–71·9) in 2013, while the number of deaths increased from 47·5 million (UI 46·8–48·2) to 54·9 million (UI 53·6–56·3) over the same interval."

For those of us who like clever people to read Lancet articles and just tell us the basics, the good folks at PopSci have summarised the report.  They conclude that the average girl born in 2012 can expect to live to the age of 72; the average boy to 68. People just about everywhere are living longer, and the average life expectancy has gone up by six years since 1990. In low income countries, the gains have been higher, with life expectancy up an average of nine years.

The highest life expectancies are in Iceland, Switzerland and Australia:

Source: PopSci

Some key stats from the report are shown here in a handy chart from the Wall Street Journal:

Source: Wall Street Journal

According to the World Health Organisation report “In high-income countries, much of the gain in life expectancy is due to success in tackling noncommunicable diseases,” says Dr Ties Boerma, Director of the Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems at WHO. “Fewer men and women are dying before they get to their 60th birthday from heart disease and stroke. Richer countries have become better at monitoring and managing high blood pressure for example.”