A recent study predicts that global life expectancy will increase by nearly five years by 2050.
“In addition to an increase in life expectancy overall, we have found that the disparity in life expectancy across geographies will lessen. This is an indicator that while health inequalities between the highest- and lowest-income regions will remain, the gaps are shrinking, with the biggest increases anticipated in sub-Saharan Africa,” says Dr. Chris Murray, Chair of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington.
The just-released 2021 study – the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) – found that life expectancy will likely increase by 4.9 years for men and 4.2 years for women between 2022 and 2050. Furthermore, the number of years a person can expect to live in “good health” is expected to increase from 64.8 years in 2022 to 67.4 years by 2050 – a 2.6-year increase. These positive trends are driven mainly by public health measures that improve disease survival rates – particularly for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, among others.
