imagesThe World Health Organization (WHO) report, which monitors progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, shows that the greatest increase in life expectancy during 2000-2015 has been in the African region, where it rose from 9.4 years to 60 years.

Since 2000, there have been dramatic gains in overall global life expectancy, say the World Health Organization in a new report. The overall increase of 5 years to just over 71 years is the fastest since the 1960s and reverses the decline seen in the 1990s. However, major inequalities in how long a child born today can expect to live still exist within and among nations, says the United Nations health agency.

The WHO attributes the big leap in life expectancy in Africa to reduction in child deaths, progress in control of malaria, and greater access to antiretrovirals for the control of HIV.

The report shows that overall, the average lifespan of a child born in 2015 is likely to be 71.4 years – or 73.8 years if it is a girl and 69.1 years if it is a boy. However, where that child is born can make a big difference to these figures.
The longest life expectancy is in Japan, where children born in 2015 are expected to live 83.7 years, followed by Switzerland (83.4 years), Singapore (83.1 years), Australia (82.8 years), and Spain (82.8 years).
All 29 countries where a child can expect to live on average 80 years or more are high-income nations, while the 22 countries with average life expectancy below 60 years are in low-income nations in sub-Saharan Africa.
 Globally, healthy life expectancy stands at 63.1 years (64.6 years for females and 61.5 years for males), suggesting around 8 years – or over a tenth – of the average lifespan will be lived in poor health or disability.
FACTS AND FIGURES…
*5.9 million children die before the age of 5
* 303,000 women die due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth
* 2 million people are newly infected with HIV, and there are 9.6 million new TB cases and 214 million malaria cases
* 1.7 billion people with neglected tropical diseases need treatment
* Over 10 million people die before the age of 70 due to cardiovascular diseases and cancer
* 1.25 million people die from road traffic injuries
* 800,000 people commit suicide
* 475,000 people are murdered (80 percent of them are men)
* 4.3 million people die from air pollution from cooking fuels
* 3 million people die from outdoor air pollution

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