Together with falling birth rates and the trend towards smaller families, the global increase in life expectancy is the main cause of the constant transition towards aging societies.
Global progress in ensuring access to health care, sanitation and education, and the continued fight once morest hunger, has not only increased life expectancy in the whole world, but also to the gap between the highly developed regions and the rest of the world to gradually close.
According to United Nations data, global life expectancy at birth for both sexes has increased from 46.5 years in 1950 to 71.7 years in 2022 and is projected to reach 77.3 years in 2050.
Moreover, it can be seen that the differences in life expectancy are tending to decrease at the global level. Asia in particular is rapidly advancing to the levels of Europe and North America.
Between 1950 and 2000, life expectancy in Asia increased by more than 25 years, reducing the gap with North America and Europe from more than 20 years to less than 10 years. Forecasts show that by 2050, Asia will have almost caught up with the Western world with a life expectancy of almost 80 years.
Despite rapid improvement, Africa is the only region that might still show a relatively low life expectancy compared to the rest of the world in 2050.
This article is produced by Statista and hosted by 20 Minutes.
