Life Expectancy Set To Hit 90 In South Korea, Study Predicts (nature.com)

According to a study published in the journal The Lancet, researchers have predicted that South Korea will likely become the first country where the average life expectancy will exceed 90 years. The researchers led by public-health researcher Majid Ezzati at Imperial College London used data from the World Health Organization and a suite of 21 statistical models they developed to figure out how life expectancy will change in 35 developed countries by 2030. Nature reports: Life expectancy is expected to increase in all 35 countries, in keeping with steady progress in recent decades, the team found. But it is South Korean women who will be living longest by 2030: there is a nearly 60% chance that their life expectancy at birth will exceed 90 years by that time, the team calculates. Girls born in the country that year can expect to live, on average, to nearly 91, and boys to 84, the highest in the world for both sexes. The nation's rapid improvement in life expectancy -- the country was ranked twenty-ninth for women in 1985 -- is probably down to overall improvements in economic status and child nutrition, the study notes, among other factors. South Koreans also have relatively equal access to health care, lower blood pressure than people in Western countries and low rates of smoking among women. As for the United States, the life expectancy is "predicted to be among the lowest of these countries by 2030; 80 for men (similar to the Czech Republic) and 83 for women (similar to Mexico)."

Comments

The US ranks with Mexico?

[Anonymous Coward]

and 83 for women (similar to Mexico)

That's because most of Mexico is already here in the United States working illegally.

Re:The US ranks with Mexico?

[thinkwaitfast]

Well somebody has to because work is below most americans and stuff has to get done.

Re: The US ranks with Mexico?

[DNS-and-BIND]

Nah, it's because the rich don't want to pay Americans what they're worth. They'd rather import illegals to work for $5/hour cash and ignore the labor laws, safety laws, overtime laws, etc. It's pure selfishness as well as disgust at the vile deplorable American people. It ain't ordinary folks who benefit from illegals.

Re: The US ranks with Mexico?

[Anonymous Coward]

Illegals cannot, by definition, work legally. Thus they can be paid under minimum wage, be abused, be unable to communicate with the OSHA inspector, etc. It's an awful situation and we need to help these people get back home.

Re: The US ranks with Mexico?

[currently_awake]

If a job has so little value that only illegal workers from Mexico can do it, then that job has already been exported to Mexico. Except that American taxpayers are covering the bills (police, school for kids etc). America would be better off just making it official and let Mexico have those jobs directly (no more subsidies etc).

I think they predicted Hillary would win election

[Anonymous Coward]

And continue to flood the US with low-life-expectancy illegal aliens, bringing their diseases and drug addictions and drugs. And cartel killings and honor killings and poor hygiene. They may need to modify their models. And account for the higher drug prices coming to the rest of the world...

Re:Best Korea Wins!

[hcs_$reboot]

Unfortunately, due to NK's presence, SK life expectancy (on average) may well be below 90 in a not so far future.

US Life Expectancy is 91.9 years

[hey!]

If you're a woman in the top 1% by income. If you're a man in the top 1% it's 88.8 years.

If you're middle class you live about 78.3 years if you're a man, which is big step up from 1980, probably because of smoking. If you're a woman you live 79.7 years, a decline of a few months since 1980.

Now if you're a poor your life expectancy has declined since 1980, to 76.1 for men and 78.3 for women.

So here's the picture: if you're rich, medical advances since 1980 have increased your expected lifespan by about seven years. But those advances haven't had any effect on middle class lifespans. If you're poor you apparently are having difficulty paying for medical care at all, which is not surprising because health care costs have consistently outpaced inflation since the mid-70s. If you're a working poor American health care inflation meant you basically screwed by the 2000s: you were too rich for Medicaid, to poor to avoid medical care.

One more thing: US has a GINI coefficient (measure of income disparity) of 45. That's the highest in the industrialized world, and much higher than it's low point of 34 in 1969. Basically all of the income growth sicne 1990 have gone to the top quintile, in fact the lion's share to the top 5%. People at the 80th percentile by income and below have seen basically zero income growth when adjusted for inflation. And since health care inflation rises faster than inflation, it means 80% of the the US has seen a cut in its disposable income.