Global Life Expectancy Nearly Returns to Pre-Covid Level

The World Health Organization’s latest Global Health Estimates show that global life expectancy has recovered to almost its pre-pandemic level. Average life expectancy at birth stood at 73.3 years in 2023, compared with 73.4 years in 2019. It had fallen to 71.5 years in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. However, healthy life expectancy has recovered more slowly and stood at 62.8 years in 2023, still 0.4 years below the 2019 level.

The WHO estimates that around 61 million people died worldwide in 2023, with the 10 leading causes accounting for about 33 million deaths. Ischaemic heart disease remained the world’s leading cause of death, responsible for approximately 9.5 million deaths, or 16% of all deaths. Stroke was the second leading cause with about 6.8 million deaths, followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with around 3.6 million. Lower respiratory infections, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, diabetes, lung cancers, hypertensive heart disease, kidney diseases and diarrhoeal diseases also featured among the leading causes of death.