NZ life expectancy

The Herald reports:

Children born in New Zealand in 2012 are likely to live into their 80s – almost at the top of the 194 countries covered in a recent World Health Organisation report.

The report ranks New Zealand males as having the fourth-highest life expectancy and females seventh.

The figures were for a baby born in 2012, and showed an increased life expectancy around the world, which does not surprise a local demographer. In poor countries it was because fewer children were dying before their fifth birthday and in wealthier countries it was because fewer people were dying of heart disease and strokes before their 60th birthday, the WHO said.

New Zealand men were expected to live to, on average, 80.2 years of age – the same as Singaporean, Israeli and Italian men. Women should live to 84, the same as Portuguese women.

The highest life expectancy overall is Japan at 84 years. The lowest is Sierra Leone at 46 years.

For women, the highest is Japan at 87 tears and lowest Sierra Leone at 46 years.

For men the highest is San Marino at 82 years and lowest Sierra Leone at 45 years.