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Global life expectancy recovers faster than healthy years

Global life expectancy has almost regained its level before the pandemic, reaching 73.3 years in 2023 in new World Health Organization estimates. Healthy life expectancy recovered more slowly and remained below its earlier level. Chronic diseases represent a growing share of deaths, while dementia and cardiovascular illness feature prominently in the changing global health picture.

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Life expectancy approaches its pre-pandemic level

New estimates from the World Health Organization, the United Nations health agency, put global life expectancy close to its pre-pandemic level. The recovery in healthy years was slower. The Global Health Estimates describe the changing worldwide pattern of longevity and illness through 2023, after the sharp losses seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1], [2]

Life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, compared with 73.4 years in 2019 and 71.5 years in 2021. Healthy life expectancy stood at 62.8 years, still 0.4 years below its 2019 level. WHO data chief Alain Labrique described longer lives as a public-health achievement and identified living those additional years in good health as the next challenge.[1]

Chronic diseases represent a growing share of deaths

Noncommunicable diseases represented 74 per cent of deaths in 2023, rising from 58 per cent in 2000. Eight of the ten leading causes of death belonged to this group. Ischaemic heart disease remained first, followed by stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Lower respiratory infections ranked fourth and were the leading communicable cause of death.[1]

Dementia rises while COVID-19 leaves the top ten

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias ranked fifth, with an estimated 2.1 million deaths. Dementia deaths tripled over the period covered by the estimates. COVID-19 dropped outside the ten leading causes of death for the first time since the pandemic began. Approximately 900,000 deaths were directly attributed to it in 2023, placing it fourteenth, compared with 5.3 million in 2020 and 9.4 million in 2021.[1]

References

  1. News sourceAFPWHO estimates show life expectancy almost back to pre-Covid levels↩1↩2↩3↩4
  2. News sourceTantaSaluteWHO global health estimates track changing causes of death and disability↩
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