The new findings come from the Australian National University, and it shows that the average Australian male is now living to 74.1 years old. The research also shows that Australian women are living the second longest, based on a global comparison of countries, coming in second place to Switzerland.
The research looked at the fifteen countries that had previously been assessed as having the longest life-expediencies (a statistical measure of the average time a person is expected to live), with nations drawn from Europe, North America and Asia.
The top global rankings are, for men:
Australia (74.1)
Sweden (74.0)
Switzerland (73.7)
Norway (73.1)
Netherlands (72.6)
And for women:
Switzerland (79.0)
Australia (78.8)
Norway (78.6)
Sweden (78.4)
Netherlands (78.2)
According to lead researcher Dr Collin Payne, the new data counters some common misconceptions: “Popular belief has it that Japan and the Nordic countries are doing really well in terms of health, wellbeing, and longevity. But Australia is right there.”
The reasons why Australia has moved to the top of the life expectancy ranking for men is attributed by the researches to Australia’s a general high standard of living which has been sustained for several years; plus a population with sufficient food to eat, and an area that has not experienced major conflict.
To arrive at the final figures, the researchers clustered people based on year of birth, separating ‘early’ deaths from ‘late’ deaths. This categorization enabled the researchers to produce the age at which someone can be considered to be an ‘above-average’ survivor. This compares people born in the same year and assesses the same life-events. This measure assesses the ‘life course’ including mortality rates from 50, 60, or 70 years ago, rather than basing figures on projections for someone who is born in 2018.
The research is published in the journal Population Studies, with the research paper headed “Tracking progress in mean longevity: The Lagged Cohort Life Expectancy (LCLE) approach.”
