Australia Among 'World Leaders' for Life Expectancy

Australia is one of the "World Leaders" for life expectancy. According to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) latest world health check, it ranks only behind Japan, Singapore and Switzerland.

Clean, pollution-free cities and a low //smoking rate are contributing factors in Australia's exceptional life expectancy. But spokesperson for the WHO Colin Mathers said that the world's overall life expectancy was also increasing.

Global Life Expectancy Increases by 10 Years
The rate of people dying from heart disease and cancers has dropped over the recent years. The life expectancy increased in 188 of 195 countries and territories.

‘Global life expectancy in the past few years has increased by five years from 2000 to 2015.’

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The data was taken from 194 WHO members, Xinhua news agency reported.

Although there are some very big health issues in Australia and lots of preventable causes of ill health, Australia is one of the world leaders (in life expectancy), Mathers said.

"It's an optimistic report. The world's overall health is improving. Obviously there are issues and problems and areas and topics where things are going backwards, but in the big picture global life expectancy increased by five years from 2000 to 2015."

Increase in Global Life Expectancy Offset by Obesity, Diabetes, Substance Abuse
Improvements in sanitation, immunizations, indoor air quality, and nutrition have enabled children in poor countries to live longer over the past 25 years.

Mathers said Australia is also a leader in a number of key areas.

The death rate of women after pregnancy was among the lowest in the world, smoking rates were in the bottom eight in the world with just 16.7 percent of men being smokers, while Australian cities are ranked among the cleanest in terms of fine particle pollution in urban areas.

WHO: Global Life Expectancy Increases by Five Years Since 2000
Despite progress in the world's poorer countries, WHO stressed that there remain significant life expectancy gaps between developed and developing nations.

Despite the positives, Australia's suicide rate was higher than the world's average (at 11.8 deaths per 100,000 people), while deaths from domestic violence and road accidents were not in decline.

Increase in Global Life Expectancy
Despite increased rate of liver cancer and chronic kidney deaths, the average life expectancy is 71.5 years in 2013, from 65.3 years in 1990.

Source-IANS