2024-2025 Student Resource Handbook

82 LIFE EXPECTANCY IN CANADA For both sexes in Canada, life expectancy is up at birth. Life expectancy within Canada is growing as it also is in many other countries around the world, according to a new report from the World Health Organization, with most of the progress being much more apparent in low-income countries. In Canada, average life expectancy for males born in 2012 is 80 and for females 84, the agency said in World Health Statistics 2013 report. In comparison, males born in Canada in 1990 could expect to live to 74 and females to 81 on average. For both sexes in Canada, life expectancy has increased on average from 77 in 1990 to 82 in 2013. Low-income countries have reported the most significant progress, with an average increase in life expectancy by nine years from 1990 to 2013. Much of the improvement in life expectancy is the result of fewer children dying before their fifth birthday, WHO director general Dr. Margaret Chan said. The decline translates into 17,000 fewer children dying every day in 2013 than in 1990. For men, the top countries for life expectancy in 2013 were: • Iceland 81.2 • Switzerland 80.7 • Australia 80.5 For women, the top countries were: • Japan 87.0 • Spain 85.1 • Switzerland 85.1 Among high-income countries, the gap between longer life expectancy for women and for men narrowed by one year, mainly because smoking rates for men fell more than for women. Life expectancy for both men and women is still less than 55 years in nine sub-Saharan African countries Angola, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The agency estimated that only one-third of all deaths worldwide are recorded in civil registries along with cause-of-death information. www.prevention.com www.thirdage.com www.worldhealth.net