1. Life expectancy - OECD.org

1 7. HEALTH INDICATORSSOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011: OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS OECD 2011781. life expectancyLife expectancy at birth now exceeds 79 years on averageacross the OECD (Panel A, ). However, there is a nineyear gap between the country with the highest lifeexpectancy, Japan, and the country with the lowest, higher performers include Switzerland and for a social indicator, Nordic countries are fairlyevenly spread across the distribution. In addition to Mexico,lower life expectancy countries include the easternEuropean member 25 years between 1983 and 2008 saw an average risein life expectancy of about six years (Panel B, ).The increase in life expectancy in the last 25 years wasaccompanied by a large reduction in cross-country differ-ences. Turkey and Korea have had the largest rises, with theUnited States having the smallest.

2 A major cause was a sig-nificant convergence in infant mortality rates betweencountries (see HE2). But older people are also living expectancy at older ages has increased substantiallythanks to medical innovations in, for example, the treat-ment of heart disease. In all countries women live longerthan men. However this gender gap in life expectancygenerally narrowed during the past 25 household income growth over the period wasnot essential to get significant gains in life expectancy ( ). Countries which have had high household dispos-able income growth for the median person have notsystematically seen greater gains than those with lowerincome growth in the last 25 , rising household income inequality was notrelated to changes in life expectancy over the last genera-tion at a country level ( ).

3 Overall, countries have notbeen evidently constrained either by median householdincome growth or by income inequality rises in achievingimprovements in life expectancy . Both and against application of a simple economic relation-ship between either disposable household income orinequality and the amount of years a person can expectto readingOECD (2009), Health at a Glance 2010: OECD Indicators, OECDP ublishing, noteFigure : 2009 for Chile, France, Mexico, the Netherlands andSweden; 2007 for Belgium and Canada; and 1990 for Chile, 1989 forEstonia and 1987 for Slovenia instead of on data for Israel: and measurementLife expectancy is defined as the average number ofyears that a person could expect to live if he or sheexperienced the age-specific mortality rates prevalentin a given country in a particular year.

4 It does notinclude the effect of any future decline in age-specificmortality rates. Each country calculates its life expec-tancy according to somewhat varying methodological differences can affect the exactcomparability of reported estimates, as differentmethods can change a country s measure of lifeexpectancy expectancy data was from 2008 except thefollowing: Belgium, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdomand the United States all 2007. Chile, France, Mexico,the Netherlands and Sweden all 2009. life expectancychanges are calculated from 1983 to 2008, except forthose countries where the latest figure is 2007, inwhich case this is income and income inequality data arediscussed in GE1 and Gini coefficient is a measure of income range between 0 perfect equality and 1 allincome goes to one HEALTH INDICATORSSOCIETY AT A GLANCE 2011: OECD SOCIAL INDICATORS OECD 2011791.

5 life life expectancy has increased remarkably in OECD countries606570758085051015( )( ) A. life expectancy at birth in 2008or latest year ( )Panel B. Rise in life expectancy between 1983and 2008 (in years)JapanSwitzerlandAustraliaItalySwed enIcelandFranceSpainIsraelCanadaLuxembou rgNorwayAustriaNew ZealandNetherlandsGermanyGreeceFinlandIr elandKoreaBelgiumUnited KingdomPortugalOECDC hileDenmarkSloveniaUnited StatesCzech RepublicPolandMexicoSlovak RepublicEstoniaHungaryTurkeyChinaBrazilI ndonesiaRussian FederationIndiaSouth No relationship between rising life expectancy and income growth34567891011121314-1012345 AUSAUTBELCANCZEDNKFINFRADEUGRCHUNIRLITAJ PNLUXMEXNLDNZLNORPRTESPSWETURGBRUSAA verage annual change in median household incomebetween mid-80s and mid-2000s (%)Rise in life expectancy between 1983 and 2008 (in years)

6 No relationship between rising life expectancy and income inequality in Gini between mid-80sand mid-2000sRise in life expectancy between 1983 and 2008 (in years)OECDS ource:OECD (2010), OECD Health Data 2010, OECD Publishing, Paris ( ), and OECD Income Distribution andPoverty Database ( ). For non-OECD countries: United Nations Population Database, World Population Prospects:The 2008 Revision ( ).1 2