A new report suggests that a Canadian’s life expectancy is higher than those who in live in the United States, but lower than other leading countries.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the Health at a Glance 2015 report, which looks at people’s life expectancy around the world. Canada’s life expectancy is one year higher than the OECD average, but still significantly lower than countries such as Japan, Spain, and Switzerland.
The life expectancy for someone born in Canada is 81.5 years, but in the top leading countries the life expectancy is 83 years or higher. According to the report, life expectancy is driven by a range of factors outside the health care system such as smoking, alcohol consumption, nutrition habits, and physical activity. Access to high-quality primary care and treatments do also play an important role as well.
Canada continues to have a low smoking rate, a trend that had continued year over year. Canadians who smoke every day has come down from 33 per cent in 1980 to 15 per cent in 2013. Alcohol consumption is also below the OECD average but, it has increased since 2000. The obesity rate among children and adults in Canada is higher than in most other OECD countries, according to the report, as more than 26 per cent of Canadian adults were obese in 2013.
The country with the lowest life expectancy is South Africa at 56.8 years. That country is closely followed by India at 66.5 years and Russian Federation at 70.7 years. The top three countries are Japan at 83.4 years, Spain at 83.2 years, and Switzerland at 82.9 years. Canada lands 13th on the list for highest life expectancy, and the average age worldwide is 80.5 years.
