Global life expectancy will increase by almost five years by 2050
Between 2022 and 2050, global life expectancy will increase by 4.9 years for men and 4.2 years for women. This is evidenced by recent advances in the field Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, conducted by researchers from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), independent research organization University of Washington (USA).
On average it is expected that global life expectancy will increase from 73.6 years in 2022 to 78.1 in 2050,
and the number of years of life in good health will increase from 64.8 years in 2022 to 67.4 in 2050.
These latest data, recently published in Lancet, indicate greater growth in countries where life expectancy is lower. This trend is largely driven by public health interventions that have prevented and improved survival rates for cardiovascular disease, Covid-19 and various infectious, maternal, neonatal and nutritional (CMNN) diseases.
It is also expected that the influence of factors risk associated with non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes…) will have the greatest impact on the disease burden of the next generation.
Thus, as the burden of disease continues to shift from communicable to non-communicable diseases and from years of life lost to years lived with disability, More people are expected to live longer, but with more years of poor health.
In addition, the study presents various alternative scenarios that compare the health outcomes of different public health interventions. The largest effects were seen in the “better metabolic and behavioral risk” scenario, but there were also improvements in “safer environment” and “better childhood nutrition and vaccinations.”