People Are Living Longer In Places You Wouldn't Expect
In lower income countries and territories, life expectancy can be quite low — below 55 years. But sometimes it is years more than you'd predict. What's up?
by Emily Sohn
Oct 05, 2017
4 minutes
Where can people expect to live the longest?
The answer to that question is usually pretty predictable and often dependent on wealth: People generally live longer in richer countries. Like Japan and Switzerland, where average life expectancies exceed 83 years.
In lower income countries, expected years of life are often far shorter — hovering below 55 in a number of sub-Saharan countries, including Chad, Mozambique and Sierra Leone.
But a recent data-crunch turned up a few surprises about how long people can expect to live in certain places, with some particularly encouraging news coming out of Niger.
The West African nation is on the low end of the life expectancy curve: 62 years on
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days