The World Health Organization has some good news for the world: Babies born today are likely to live longer than ever before, and the gains are particularly dramatic in the parts of the world where life expectancy has lagged most. Worldwide, life expectancy is just under 74 years for women and just over 69 years for men.
Great news: people around the world are living longer than ever
Libby Nelson was Vox’s editorial director, politics and policy, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.
Babies born today across Africa can expect to live almost 10 years longer than those born in 2000, the biggest gains in life expectancy anywhere in the world.
That’s particularly heartening news because although life expectancy has gone up rapidly around the world, including across Africa, since 1960, the gains stalled in the 1990s as the AIDS epidemic spread. The WHO says the improvement in the past 16 years is the result of better HIV treatment, progress in controlling malaria, and reduced child mortality.
Life expectancy is still much lower in some African countries than in the rest of the world. In 2014, it was just 60 years, compared to 77 years in Europe and the Americas. Still, the average life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa has gone up 18 years between 1960 and 2014, according to the World Bank. And the WHO points out that the gap between Africa and Europe has narrowed by five years since 2000.
The gains in life expectancy at birth around the world since 1960 have been dramatic elsewhere, too. Babies born today in Nepal can expect to live to 69, a 34-year increase since 1960. Bhutan, Turkmenistan, China, Tunisia, Oman, and Iran have also seen life expectancy increases by at least 30 years:
Go deeper:
- The world is getting better in all kinds of ways. Here are 26 charts showing some of them from Vox’s Dylan Matthews.
- It’s not just in Africa where the gains have shown up: Worldwide, infant and child mortality is at its lowest point in human history.
- The WHO plans to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. Vox’s Julia Belluz explains their plan.
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