Several nations’ average life expectancies have increased significantly over the last 60 years, from 30-40 years to 70+ years. Let’s visualize healthcare spending and life expectancy, by country.
Globally, life expectancy at birth has more than doubled over the past century, partly as a result of advancements and discoveries in the domains of sanitation, vaccinations, and preventative healthcare.
Although the average human life expectancy has greatly grown globally, there is still a glaring difference in average life expectancies between various nations.
What causes this division, and why? Carmen Ang of Visual Capitalist speculates that it might be somewhat tied to how much money a country spends on its healthcare, in light of data gathered by Truman Du for the World Bank.
More Spending Generally Means More Years
The most recent data from the World Bank include both the average life expectancy and healthcare spending per capita for 178 different nations.
Perhaps not unexpectedly, the analysis discovered that nations with higher healthcare expenditures tended to have longer average life expectancies up to and including the age of 80.
There were a handful of minor outliers, though.
For instance, despite having the highest spending of any nation in the dataset, the United States’ average life expectancy of 77 years is lower than that of several other nations that have far lower per capita spending.
What is happening in the US? While there are many connected factors at work, some experts think that the nation’s higher newborn death rate and higher relative rate of violence among young adults are major contributors.
On the opposite end of the scale, despite their comparatively low per capita expenditure, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea have the longest life expectancies on the list.
It is worth noting that this was not always the case—in the 1960s, Japan had the lowest (read below) life expectancy among the G7 countries, while South Korea’s was well below 60 years, placing it one of the top 30 nations in terms of improved life expectancy:
In truth, several nations’ average life expectancies have increased significantly over the last 60 years, from 30-40 years to 70+ years. However, as the header graphic illustrates, numerous countries in Africa, Asia, and Oceania are still lagging behind.
How High Can Average Life Expectancy Go?
How much longer will the average life expectancy be in next 100 years given that people are living longer than they ever have?
According to recent studies that were published in Nature Communications, humans have the capacity to live up to 150 years if the appropriate conditions are met.
According to UN projections, growth will be uneven, with wealthy nations experiencing higher life expectancy rates than developing ones.
However, as shown in the above World Economic Forum chart based on UN data, the disparity between developed and developing countries is projected to diminish over time.
For the time being, the rate of new COVID-19 mortality is still only a small portion of the fall and winter waves from the previous year. However, life expectancy has suffered the largest decline in 100 years.
Read the document below:
Visualizing-Healthcare-Spending-And-Life-Expectancy-By-Country
One Response
Keep this story as a place holder for the future; the information here is not real time in 2022.
Average life expectancy in the US began dropping in 2021; it was at 73 and some change in around the third quarter, according to the insurance actuary tables……..and if the trends continue, it is expected to hit the low 50’s by the end of the next five years. What on earth happened in 2021 that was different from all the prior years?