How long you live depends on country

Most of us want to live a long and fulfilling life. But a study detailing a country-by-country analysis of life expectancy perhaps puts some doubt in our mind about how long we will actually live.

The research, conducted by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, found America to be ranked 37th in the world for both men and women.

The results indicated life expectancy for American women was dropping as never before in some sections of the nation, despite spending the most on health care per capita.

From 1987 to 1997, there were 227 counties where female life expectancy dropped. From 1997 to 2007, the number of counties where women’s life expectancy exploded to 737.

Nearly two-thirds of the globe fell further behind life expectancies for women in the 10 longest-living countries.

Between 1987 and 2007, life expectancy increased nationwide from 71.3 years to 75.6 years for men and from 78.4 to 80.8 years for women. Despite the increase, Americans still lag more than three years behind the 10 longest-living nations, including Japan, Australia, Singapore and Sweden.

In 2007, life expectancy ranged among individual counties from 65.9 to 81.1 years for men and 73.5 and 86 years for women.

America’s Institute for Health and Metrics and Evaluation director, Christopher Murray, said his research team expected to find regional and racial disparities, but the overall breadth of the backward movement was stunning.

Mr Murray said several negative trends were hitting American women all at once.

“Men were big smokers in the 1950s and have cut back since,’’ Mr Murray said.

“Women started later and we are now seeing the damage done by this wave of women smokers. Obesity also hits women harder than men, and this is a huge factor nationwide. With high blood pressure, we know from previous studies, women are not being diagnosed or treated at the same level,” he said.

Life expectancy for black men in two-thirds of the nation’s counties is no better than what it was in other rich countries in the 1950s.

There were startling contrasts in life expectancy within the United States. In Virginia’s Fairfax County, the average man lives to be 81 years old. However, men only reach the age of 65 in Mississippi’s Holmes County.

The Washington researchers pondered how much better the national health would be if we had a “high-performance’’ system. They determined that if the health risk factors of smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes could be brought under control, life expectancy could be improved by five years for men and four years for women.

Mr Murray said he hoped the county-by-county data would help health and political leaders better target their policies.

“What the data should do is end any boasting about the greatness of our health care system. There is nothing to brag about when three times more counties are seeing big drops in life expectancy for women,” he said.

Australian life expectancy at birth: 81.81 years
Male: 79.4 years
Female: 84.35 years (2011 est.)

Year     Life expectancy
2003    80.13                                     
2004    80.39    
2005    80.39    
2006    80.5     
2007    80.62    
2008    81.53    
2009    81.63   
2010    81.72    
2011    81.81

Definition: This entry contains the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year, if mortality at each age remains constant in the future.

On top of the world

According to an index measuring quality of life, Australians were ranked as the happiest people in the world.

The index, compiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) earlier this week, showed Australians were the most satisfied with their lives, followed by people in Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, the United States, Switzerland, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Australians performed “exceptionally well” in key measures of wellbeing, and found household incomes in Australia exceeds the OECD average, as does life expectancy and general life satisfaction.

The report titled, How’s Life, will be released in October this year.

Do you think our life expectancy is dependent on what country we come from? Share your opinions in the comment box below.