Global life expectancy set to grow by nearly 5 years by 2050
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The latest findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, published in The Lancet, forecast that global life expectancy will increase by 4.9 years in males and 4.2 years in females between 2022 and 2050.
The findings were part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study 2021, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet.
“Future trends may be quite different than past trends because of factors such as climate change and increasing obesity and addiction,” said Liane Ong, lead research scientist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHMEE) at the University of Washington, which led the study.
Longer lifespans around the world
The Global Burden of Diseases team predicted that life expectancy is expected to rise from 71.1 years to 76 years for men and from 76.2 years to 80.5 years for women.
Countries that currently have lower life expediencies are set to see the biggest gains.
The researchers said this trend is largely driven by public health measures that have prevented and improved survival rates from diseases like heart disease, COVID-19, and a range of communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases.
The research also found that the total number of years lost due to metabolic risk factors like high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high body mass index (BMI) has increased by almost 49.4% since 2000.
Air pollution, smoking and low birth weight were also among the largest contributors to the number of years of health lost due to poor health and early death.
