Which Country Has the Best & Worst Life Expectancy? Why? - TLDR News
Summary
TLDRThis video explores global life expectancy, highlighting Japan as the leader with 84.3 years. Factors influencing life expectancy include wealth, health spending, and education. Wealth correlates with life expectancy until a plateau is reached, as described by the Preston curve. Health spending impacts life expectancy, with examples like Spain vs. the Czech Republic. Education is a strong predictor, with Vietnam outperforming Nigeria despite similar GDP per capita. The video also discusses the US's low ranking despite high wealth.
Takeaways
- 🌍 The video discusses global life expectancy using data from the December 2020 WHO report, focusing on how long a newborn is expected to live.
- 🏆 Japan leads the world in life expectancy with an average of 84.3 years, followed by Switzerland and South Korea.
- 📉 The United States ranks 40th in life expectancy despite being one of the world's wealthiest and most influential nations.
- 📊 There is a positive correlation between life expectancy and wealth, health spending, and education level, but with diminishing returns as these factors increase.
- 💼 Wealth, as measured by GDP per capita, is strongly linked to life expectancy, especially for poorer countries, but the impact lessens as countries become wealthier.
- 🏥 Public health spending is positively correlated with life expectancy, with countries like Spain having higher life expectancy than the Czech Republic despite similar GDP per capita.
- 🇺🇸 The U.S. spends nearly twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries but has a lower life expectancy, highlighting the inefficiency of its healthcare system.
- 🎓 Education is a strong predictor of life expectancy, with better-educated populations tending to live longer. Vietnam has a higher life expectancy than Nigeria despite similar GDP per capita.
- 📈 The Preston Curve illustrates the relationship between wealth and life expectancy, showing that increases in GDP per capita have a greater impact on life expectancy in poorer countries.
- 🧠 Education may improve life expectancy by raising IQ levels and cognitive abilities, leading to better life choices and healthier behaviors.
- 🌐 The video concludes by encouraging viewers to consider the factors that contribute to life expectancy and how they vary across different countries.
Q & A
What is the average global life expectancy according to the December 2020 WHO data?
-The average global life expectancy is 73.3 years.
Which country has the lowest life expectancy in the world?
-Lesotho has the lowest life expectancy in the world, with a child born today expected to live until the age of 50.7 years.
What are the three factors that determine a country's life expectancy?
-The three factors that determine a country's life expectancy are wealth, health, and education.
How does wealth correlate with life expectancy?
-There is a positive correlation between life expectancy and wealth, but this relationship weakens as countries become wealthier, due to diminishing returns on GDP per capita in terms of life expectancy.
What is the Preston Curve and how does it relate to wealth and life expectancy?
-The Preston Curve is a concept that describes the relationship between wealth (GDP per capita) and life expectancy. It shows that increases in GDP per capita lead to significant increases in life expectancy for poor countries, but these gains slow as countries become wealthier.
How does public health expenditure affect life expectancy?
-Public health expenditure is positively correlated with life expectancy. Higher spending typically leads to better health outcomes such as improved vaccine programs, better antibiotics, and antivirals, and better treatment for diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Why does the United States have a lower life expectancy compared to other developed countries despite its high healthcare spending?
-The United States spends nearly twice as much as any other developed country on healthcare but has a lower life expectancy. This could be due to various factors not fully explored in the script, but it's noted that the U.S. has a unique health system and other social determinants of health that may contribute to this discrepancy.
How does education level correlate with life expectancy?
-There is a positive correlation between life expectancy and education level. Education is actually a better predictor of life expectancy than wealth, as it can raise IQ levels and improve executive functioning and cognitive abilities, leading to better life choices.
What are some of the countries with life expectancies above 80 years?
-Countries with life expectancies above 80 years include Greece, Denmark, the UK, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, France, and notably Japan with an average life expectancy of 84.3 years.
What is the significance of the color coding in the life expectancy map mentioned in the script?
-In the life expectancy map, green countries are above the global average life expectancy of 73.3 years, while red countries are below this average.
What additional perks do patrons receive for supporting the channel as mentioned in the script?
-Patrons receive perks such as an exclusive lanyard, early access to videos, exclusive live events, merch discounts, and more.
Outlines
🌍 Global Life Expectancy Overview
The video begins by acknowledging its patrons and offering an exclusive lanyard for new sign-ups. It then delves into the critical topic of life expectancy, emphasizing its importance over political and ideological debates. The data used is sourced from the December 2020 WHO report, focusing on the expected lifespan of a newborn. The video presents a global life expectancy average of 73.3 years, with countries above this figure in green and those below in red. Lesotho is highlighted as having the lowest life expectancy at 50.7 years, while countries like Nigeria, Afghanistan, Haiti, and the Republic of Congo fall between 65 and 69 years. The video also points out the surprising position of the US at 40th place, despite its wealth and influence, and invites viewers to comment on any surprising findings. The video promises to explore the reasons behind these statistics in subsequent content.
💼 Wealth and Life Expectancy
This section of the video discusses the relationship between a country's wealth, as measured by GDP per capita, and life expectancy. It references Samuel Preston's observation that increases in GDP per capita significantly raise life expectancy in poorer countries, but this effect diminishes as countries become wealthier, a phenomenon represented by the Preston curve. The video explains that while wealth can improve nutrition, medical services, and security, thereby extending life, there is a natural limit to human lifespan regardless of wealth. The US is noted as an outlier, spending nearly twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries yet having a lower life expectancy. The video suggests that while wealth is a significant factor, other variables such as public health spending and education also play crucial roles in determining life expectancy.
🏥 Public Health Expenditure and Life Expectancy
The video segment explores the correlation between public health expenditure and life expectancy, using Spain and the Czech Republic as comparative examples. Despite similar GDP per capita, Spain's higher health expenditure results in a higher life expectancy. The video explains that increased health spending leads to better vaccination programs, access to better medicines, and improved treatment for major diseases, all of which significantly impact life expectancy. However, it also notes that there are diminishing returns on life expectancy as public health spending increases beyond a certain point. The US is highlighted again for its unusually high healthcare spending relative to its life expectancy, suggesting that other factors must be considered.
🎓 Education as a Predictor of Life Expectancy
The final section of the video emphasizes the importance of education in predicting life expectancy, even more so than wealth. It argues that education not only leads to higher incomes but also improves cognitive abilities and decision-making, which can contribute to a longer life. The video contrasts Vietnam and Nigeria to illustrate this point, showing that despite a lower GDP per capita, Vietnam's investment in education results in a higher life expectancy. The video suggests that education can raise IQ levels and improve life choices, which in turn can affect life expectancy. It concludes by reiterating the three main determinants of life expectancy discussed in the video: wealth, public health spending, and education.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Life Expectancy
💡GDP
💡Public Health Spending
💡Education
💡Preston Curve
💡Diminishing Returns
💡Correlation
💡IQ
💡Executive Functioning
💡Outlier
💡Causation
Highlights
Life expectancy is a critical measure of a country's well-being.
The WHO data from December 2020 reveals the global average life expectancy is 73.3 years.
Lesotho has the lowest life expectancy at 50.7 years.
Countries with life expectancies between 65 and 69 years include South Africa and Kenya.
Japan leads the world with an average life expectancy of 84.3 years.
The US ranks 40th in life expectancy despite its wealth and influence.
Wealth, health, and education are the three main determinants of life expectancy.
The Preston Curve shows the relationship between GDP per capita and life expectancy.
Healthcare spending is positively correlated with life expectancy.
Education is a better predictor of life expectancy than wealth.
Diminishing returns occur in the relationship between wealth and life expectancy.
Public health spending leads to better vaccine programs and treatment.
The US spends nearly twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries but has a lower life expectancy.
Education can raise IQ levels, which is associated with longer life expectancy.
Literacy and education improve life choices, contributing to longer life expectancy.
The video provides a deep dive into why the US has a falling life expectancy.
Patreon supporters enable the creation of informative videos like this one.
Transcripts
[Music]
this video was made possible by patrons
like cody b
thanks cody if you sign up now you can
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tldr lanyard absolutely free find out
more at the end of the video
you can argue about policy ideology and
political campaigns but when it comes
down to it
there's little more important than life
expectancy so
let's take a look at the data examine
which country's citizens live the
longest and why people who die soonest
do for this video the data we're using
comes from the december 2020 who data
looking at how long a newborn child is
expected to live for
the middle of the scale 73.3 years is
the average global life expectancy
which means all green countries are
above the average and all red
are below it the country with the lowest
life expectancy in the world is lesotho
where a child born today is expected to
live until the age of
50.7 also low on the list we have the
central african republic
somalia esratini mozambique
kiribati and chad the good news is that
if you live anywhere else you can expect
to live to at least 60.
with life expectancies between 1665 we
have these countries
notably including nigeria afghanistan
haiti
and the republic of congo in the next
grouping we have people who live between
65 and 69 years
including south africa papua new guinea
kenya and ethiopia
next we have between 69 and 73.3 years
with this group containing sudan myanmar
india
egypt north korea syria and russia
above them living to between 73.3 and 76
we have countries including vietnam
bangladesh bulgaria latvia and brazil
then between 76 and 80 we find mexico
the uae
iran china poland the us turkey and peru
finally in the top group those with life
expectancies above 80
we find greece denmark the uk portugal
germany ireland new zealand canada
france and then in the top 10 norway
israel italy australia cyprus
spain and singapore third
is south korea with 83.3 years
switzerland at 83.4 and at the top
japan with an average life expectancy of
84.3
a significant lead so this is how all of
the countries compare
and before we continue i'd like you to
comment below on
any countries which surprised you where
are you from and did you expect to be
higher or lower
one particular country of note is the us
who came 40th
despite being one of the world's richest
and most influential countries
we actually did a deep dive on the u.s
life expectancy on the tltr us channel
last week
where we discussed why the u.s life
expectancy is falling
when other countries have seen a rising
life expectancy
that video is linked below so what
determines a country's life expectancy
and why are these ones so low well there
are basically three factors
wealth health and education essentially
there are strong positive correlations
between life expectancy
and all three variables more
specifically there's a positive
correlation between life expectancy
and gdp life expectancy in public health
spending
and life expectancy in a country's
average education level
a quick methodological disclaimer
because these factors usually come
together
countries with higher gdps tend to have
better educated populations
and spend more on healthcare it's hard
to isolate the impact of one individual
factor
essentially correlation doesn't imply
causation so just keep that one in mind
while watching the video
so let's start with wealth the
relationship between wealth and life
expectancy was first described by samuel
preston in 1975.
he observed that increases in gdp per
capita for poor countries
entail massive increases in life
expectancy but
gains in life expectancy quickly start
to slow once countries get a bit
wealthier
in other words there are diminishing
returns to gdp per capita
in terms of life expectancy when these
results are plotted on a graph you get
this curve which is known as the preston
curve
so let's see how this works when we look
at the map the map is the life
expectancy one we showed you earlier
and this one is gdp per capita
as you can see wealthier countries tend
to also have higher life expectancies
but this relationship breaks down
amongst the wealthiest countries
that there are diminishing returns to
gdp in terms of life expectancy makes
sense
increased wealth allows people to buy
better nutrition medical services and
security
all of which obviously improve life
expectancy
but past a certain point these things
don't help you because there's an upper
limit to how old you can get
no matter how wealthy you are yep even
jeff
so that's wealth let's talk about health
as you might expect
increases in public health expenditure
are positively correlated with increase
in life expectancy
this is why spain has a higher life
expectancy than the czech republic
despite having similar gdp per capita
spain spends about nine percent of gdp
on health care
whereas the czech republic spends about
7.5 percent
which goes some way to explain why
spain's life expectancy
is 83.2 whereas the czechs can expect to
live to 79.2
again that there are diminishing returns
on life expectancy is down to much the
same reasons as before
increases in public health spending mean
better vaccine programs better
antibiotics and antivirals
and better treatment for stuff like
cardiovascular disease and cancer
which all makes a massive difference to
life expectancy
past a certain point though there's not
much more that a public health service
can do
and again you can see this when you
compare a map of healthcare spending
against a map of life expectancy the
notable
outlier when it comes to healthcare
spending is the u.s the u.s spends
nearly twice as much as
any other developed country on
healthcare spending but had a precovered
life expectancy
of just 78.7 in 2018.
for context the uk had a life expectancy
of 81.2 in 2018
france 82.7 and spain 83.2
if you want to know more about the us's
anomalously low life expectancy
go watch our video on it all right on to
the last one
education again there's a positive
correlation between life expectancy and
education
now you might be thinking that this is
somewhat unsurprising because
well better educated people get paid
more and wealth helps you live longer
and while this is true what's
interesting is that education is
actually a better predictor of life
expectancy than wealth
according to a paper by wolfgang lutz
published in the population and
development review in 2018.
compare vietnam and nigeria for example
while nigeria's gdp per capita is around
5 000
its life expectancy is just 54 years
for context vietnam has a slightly
higher gdp per capita
of 7 000 but a far higher life
expectancy of 76
nigeria has one of the worst education
systems in the world
nigeria spends just eight percent of its
budget on education
30 percent of nigerians are illiterate
and 10 million children are out of
school
the highest number in the world vietnam
on the other hand
spends 20 percent of its budget on
education which means high primary
school completion rates
strong gender parity low student teacher
ratios
and a low out of school rate so why is
education such a good predictor of life
expectancy
well this could be for a couple of
reasons first education can raise iq
levels
with every extra year of education
translating into a one to five point
increase in iq and people with high iqs
tend to live longer
lutz speculated that literacy and
education in general
improve executive functioning and
cognitive abilities
which translate into better life choices
whatever the precise mechanism the point
is that education is actually a
surprisingly good
indicator of life expectancy so those
are the three main determinants of life
expectancy
and hopefully it goes some of the way to
explain this map and why some countries
are able to help their citizens
live much longer than others if you like
this video then we have a whole bunch of
map videos
and the playlist of them all is linked
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