Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
29 April 2011
Life Expectancy
Rising in Rich Nations
Those who live in developed countries are now
living twice as long as their forebears in the
mid-
A Canadian’s life expectancy at birth is now 78.7 years for a man and 83.9 for a woman; a male child born in Afghanistan has a life expectancy of 44.5 years, and a female born in that country can expect to live just three months longer. That’s about the same age as a Canadian could have expected in the 1870s.
These and many other statistics come from World Life Expectancy, a project of LeDuc Media.
Life Expectancy has
Jumped in the last 150 years
According to The Conference Board of Canada, “An average person living during the time of the Roman Empire might have expected to live 25 years.
At the turn of the 20th century, an individual had a life expectancy of 50 years. In 2006, the estimated average life expectancy in Canada and its peer countries was 80 years.”
The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) says that in 1850 a male child could look forward to a life lasting 38.3 years, while a female child was statistically likely to live until age 40.5.
The rapid increase in life expectancy over the last century and a half is associated with improved nutrition, widespread public health measures, and the development of modern medicine.
Statistics Suggest Life
Expectancies Will Continue Rising
The SSA statisticians say that by 2085, at birth a boy will likely live to be 93.8 years old and a girl will live until she is 96.1.
These are the longest life expectancies that actuaries foresee; they also acknowledge that life expectancies 75 years into the future might not be that much different from today.
Actuaries are quick to point out that they don’t make predictions; they deal in probabilities that are suggested by their statistics.
Number of Centenarians Growing
In keeping with rising life expectancies, the number of centenarians is going up also with current estimates suggesting the world has about 450,000 people who are 100 years old or older.
The British website thecentenarian.co.uk says that, “If the population of centenarians continues to increase at its current rate of expansion there could be close to one million people of 100 years of age or more by 2050 residing in the U.S.” That would be an increase from the 72,000 centenarians currently living in America.
The website notes that, “The Office of National Statistics reports around 9,000 centenarians
today in the U.K…a 90-
United States Does Poorly
in Comparison to its Peers
Among 17 countries studied by the Conference Board of Canada, average life expectancy (combined men and women) was highest in Japan (82.4 years).
J.C. Munt
The next longest livers are in Switzerland (81.7), followed by Italy (81.2), Australia (81.1), and Sweden (80.8). Canadians came next with an average life expectancy of 80.7 years.
Seventeenth, and last on the list, is the United States where the combined average life expectancy of men and women is 78 years. However, there are still many nations (Jordan and Cyprus are examples) not in the Conference Board study that do better than the U.S.
This poor showing prompts the people at World Life Expectancy to comment, “…when you spend twice as much on Healthcare as anyone else and you can’t even crack the top 30 in the world life expectancy rankings, it’s no wonder the country wants to know what’s going on.”
Image credit
Michael Cohen
Sources
“Life Expectancy.” Conference Board of Canada, September 2009.
2009 OASDI Trustees Report
“Good News: Life’s no longer Short (not sure about Nasty or Brutish).” Neil Reynolds, Globe and Mail, February 22, 2010.
© Canada and the World, April 2011
All rights reserved
AT THE BOTTOM
Life expectancy in some countries does not improve.
The ten countries with the lowest life expectancy are:
Angola -
Zambia -
Lesotho -
Mozambique -
Liberia -
Afghanistan -
Central African
Republic -
Zimbabwe -
Nigeria -
Chad -
According to United Nations World Population Prospects 2006 Revision, life expectancy at birth for the world’s population is 67.2 years (65.0 years for males and 69.5 years for females). The CIA World Factbook for 2009 puts the numbers at 66.57 years (64.52 years for males and 68.76 years for females).