April 4, 2024 2:30 PM

Global life expectancy rises despite setbacks from COVID-19

Global life expectancy surged by 6.2 years between 1990 and 2021, as revealed by a recent study published in The Lancet. The rise has been attributed to significant decline in mortality rates linked to diseases such as diarrhea, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and ischemic heart disease. However, the COVID-19 pandemic posed major challenges, leading to a net reduction in global life expectancy by 1.6 years between 2019 and 2021. From 1990 to 2019, incremental improvements in life expect...