Life expectancy gains ‘slowing down significantly across the world’

Improvements in human life expectancy have seen a significant slowdown over the last few decades, according to new research.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study examined life expectancy data for 139 countries to assess the decade-by-decade improvements achieved during the period from 1950 to 2009.

A mean life expectancy gain from decade to decade of 9.7 years was achieved during the 1950s, but has fallen steadily since to only 1.9 years during the 2000s.

Of particular concern is the fact that this decline cannot be explained by a ceiling effect resulting from average lifespans approaching their biological limit, as the trend towards slower gains – or even declines – was shown to be worst among low-lifespan countries.

As such, the researchers called for a renewed focus on tackling persistently low life expectancy, backed up by strong political will and social consensus.

Dr David Bishai, a professor at the Bloomberg School's department of population, family and reproductive health, said: "We used to be good at this, and if we can get it back then I think we can again see the kinds of improvements we were seeing in the 1950s."

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