Children Born in China Have More Healthy Years Than Americans

Children Born in China Have More Healthy Years Than Americans
May 31, 2018 By eChinacities.com

Children born in China have for the first time overtaken their American counterparts when it comes to healthy life expectancy. Figures released by the World Health Organisation show that newborn babies in China can expect 68.7 years of healthy life, compared to 68.5 years for American babies.

This is the first time China has overtaken America for healthy life expectancy. The US came 40th in the rankings overall, while China came 37th.

Children in the US can expect to live longer overall (78.5 years compared to 76.4 years for China), but the last decade of life in America is likely to be unhealthy.

The US is one of just five countries to see healthy life expectancy fall in 2016, according to the data. The other countries seeing a drop were Somalia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

China’s overall life expectancy is also creeping up to that of the United States and could overtake by 2027, according to Reuters calculations from the report. Having peaked in 2014 at 79 years, America’s life expectancy is falling due to drug use, suicides and health problems synonymous with poorer areas.

Babies in Singapore fair the best, with a prediction of 76.2 years of healthy life. Singapore is followed in the rankings by Japan, Spain and Switzerland, respectively.

Japan has the world’s longest overall life expectancy at 84.2 years. Babies born there in 2016 will likely be the first to ring in the new century.

Warning:The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.

Keywords: Children born in China

3 Comments

All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.

hasan.mustafay

Statistics of one year do not give an accurate picture, however an indication of improvement is welcome.

Jun 29, 2020 23:03 Report Abuse

ambivalentmace

The generalization of the article does not consider the diverse geography of a large country compared to Switzerland or a smaller less diverse country. I would venture raising a kid in New York City or Boise. Idaho is quite different, likewise raising a kid in Shenzhen would be different than Qifu. The averages for large countries don't give a good picture.

Jun 01, 2018 07:39 Report Abuse

ambivalentmace

agree, I think we see a lot of old people in China now that were raised when China had clean air, but kids now are not raised in that environment, so the life expectancy will be less. This can be proven by the life expectancy of children born in England in the beginning of the 20th century when you could not breath the air in London.

Jun 01, 2018 12:10 Report Abuse