The top achiever was Liberia, where average lifespans increased by a full 20 years, from 42 to 62
New Delhi: Life expectancy has risen globally since 1990, especially in low-income countries, according to a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday. Life expectancy of a girl born in 2012 is 73 years, while that of a boy is 68 years. The average life expectancy of a child born in 2012 is six years longer than one born in 1990.
A boy born in 2012 in a high-income country can expect to live to the age of 76, as opposed 60 years for a boy born in a low-income country-a difference of 16 years. With a life expectancy of 82 years, a girl born in a high-income country can expect to live 19 years longer than one born in a low-income country (63 years).
While women from Japan can expect to live the longest (87 years), men from Iceland have the highest life expectancy at 81.2 years. "In high-income countries, much of the gain in life expectancy is due to success in tackling non-communicable diseases," said 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."
Declining tobacco use is also a key factor in helping people live longer in several countries.
However children in Angola, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which are at the bottom of the list, can still not expect to live longer than 55 years.