Abridged Life Tables report: India’s life expectancy inches up 2 years to 69.7

What is the News?

The Abridged Life Tables report for the period of 2015-19 has been released by the Sample Registration System(SRS).

What are the key findings from the report?

India’s Life Expectancy: India’s life expectancy at birth has increased to 69.7 in the 2015-19 period. However, this is well below the estimated global average life expectancy of 72.6 years. 

Life Expectancy over 45-year Period: Over a 45-year period, India had added about 20 years to its life expectancy at birth. India’s life expectancy at birth increased from 49. 7 in 1970-75 to 69. 7 by 2015-19.

Odisha has had the highest increase of over 24 years from 45.7 to 69.8 years followed by Tamil Nadu, where it increased from 49.6 to 72.6 years.

Difficulty in Raising Life Expectancy: It has taken almost ten years for India to add two years to life expectancy. 

The data suggest that high infant and under-five mortality could be the reason India finds it difficult to raise life expectancy at birth faster. 

Huge Rural-Urban Variations: Within India, there are huge variations across states and between urban and rural areas

Kerala is the only state where rural life expectancy was higher than urban life expectancy for both men and women. In Uttarakhand that was the case among women.

Bihar and Jharkhand remained the only states where male life expectancy was higher than for women in both urban and rural areas.

What is Life expectancy at birth in different countries?

As per UN’s Human Development Report, 2019: In the neighborhood, Bangladesh and Nepal now have a higher life expectancy at birth of 72.1 and 70.5 respectively.

Japan has the highest life expectancy of 85. Norway, Australia, Switzerland and Iceland had a life expectancy of 83.

Source: The post is based on the article “India’s life expectancy inches up 2 years to 69.7” published in TOI on 13th June 2022.