Global Inequality in Health: Disparities in Human Longevity among Countries

Abstract

Increasing disparity in life expectancy among countries has been widely documented and discussed. The depressing and disturbing story is well-known but worth reiterating briefly. Global life expectancy, as was noted in Chapter 1, has improved continually from 48 years in the early 1950s to 68 years in the early 2000s (WHO 1996; UNDP 2007). The star regional performer has been Asia, which has achieved an increase in life expectancy from 41.1 to 67 years over the same period (Dorling et al. 2006). Life expectancy in many countries now exceeds 80 years. The highest achievers are Japan and Hong Kong, in which life expectancy was 82.3 and 81.9 years, respectively (UNDP 2007). The experience for many other countries has been radically different. Life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa increased steadily from 38.2 years in the early 1950s to 50.1 years in the early 2000s. It fell to 48.8 years by the early 2000s, some 33 years less than in OECD countries, owing mainly to the HIV/AIDS pandemic experienced in the region (Dorling et al. 2006). Four sub-Saharan African countries in the early 2000s recorded life expectancies that were less than 42.4 years, which was the regional achievement some 40 years earlier (UNDP 2007). Life expectancy had fallen by the mid-2000s to 39.2 years in Lesotho, more than 43 years less than in Japan during the same period (UNDP 2007).