In recent decades all regions of the world made very substantial progress, and it were those regions that were worst-off in 1950 that achieved the biggest progress since then. In 1950 newborns had the chance of a longer life if they were lucky enough to be born in the right place. The three maps summarize the global history of life expectancy over the last two centuries: Back in 1800 a newborn baby could only expect a short life, no matter where in the world it was born. According to the UN estimates the country with the best health in 1950 was Norway with a life expectancy of 72.3 years. The United Nations estimate a global average life expectancy of 72.6 years for 2019 – the global average today is higher than in any country back in 1950. Today most people in the world can expect to live as long as those in the very richest countries in 1950. But in health - and many other aspects - the world has made rapid progress. We still tend to think of the world as divided as it was in 1950. Many of us have not updated our world view. Now, let’s look at the change since 1950. 3 After millennia of stagnation in terrible health conditions the seal was finally broken. It was the first time in human history that we achieved sustained improvements in health for entire populations. Such improvements in life expectancy - despite being exclusive to particular countries - was a landmark sign of progress. The decline of child mortality was important for the increase of life expectancy, but as we explain in our entry on life expectancy increasing life expectancy was certainly not only about falling child mortality – life expectancy increased at all ages. Africa as a whole had an average life expectancy of only 36 years, while people in other world regions could expect to live more than twice as long. The global inequality in health was enormous in 1950: People in Norway had a life expectancy of 72 years, whilst in Mali this was 26 years. But elsewhere a newborn could only expect to live around 30 years. In 1950 the life expectancy for newborns was already over 60 years in Europe, North America, Oceania, Japan and parts of South America. Over the next 150 years some parts of the world achieved substantial health improvements. Almost everyone in the world lived in extreme poverty, we had very little medical knowledge, and in all countries our ancestors had to prepare for an early death. 1ĭemographic research suggests that at the beginning of the 19 th century no country in the world had a life expectancy longer than 40 years. The three maps show the global history of life expectancy over the last two centuries. Share of women expected to survive to the age of 65.Share of men and women expected to survive to the age of 65.Life expectancy at birth, including the UN projections.Life expectancy UN historical estimates.
Over the last decades this global inequality decreased. Good health in the rich countries and persistently bad health in those countries that remained poor. This led to a very high inequality in how health was distributed across the world. In the early 19th century, life expectancy started to increase in the early industrialized countries while it stayed low in the rest of the world. Life expectancy has increased rapidly since the Age of Enlightenment. It tells us the average age of death in a population.Įstimates suggest that in a pre-modern, poor world, life expectancy was around 30 years in all regions of the world. Broader than the narrow metric of the infant and child mortality, which focus solely at mortality at a young age, life expectancy captures the mortality along the entire life course.
Life expectancy is the key metric for assessing population health.
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