Bangladesh’s average life expectancy reached 72.7 years in 2023, higher than India and Pakistan, according to the latest estimates released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The UN health agency released the latest data on Friday, October 2. The Global Health Estimates cover changes between 2000 and 2023, including life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, causes of death and disease burden.
According to the figures, life expectancy in 2023 was 72.7 years in Bangladesh, compared with 71 years in India and 68.2 years in Pakistan.
The average life expectancy was 78.5 years in the United States and 81.4 years in Canada.
However, living longer does not necessarily mean spending more years in good health.
In India, healthy life expectancy was 60.6 years in 2023, compared with 60.5 years in 2019. It had fallen to 58.4 years in 2021 before rising to 60.2 years in 2022.
WHO’s latest estimates show that global life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, close to the 73.4 years recorded in 2019. Global healthy life expectancy stood at 62.8 years in 2023, still 0.4 years below its 2019 level.
Dr Alain Labrique, director of WHO’s Department of Data, Digital Health, Analytics and AI, said longer life expectancy is a major achievement in public health.
“The next challenge is to ensure that those additional years are lived in good health,” Labrique said.
