The CIA post 2009 Life Expectancy Est for 2009 - Take That Albania!

[rpannier]

Yep. According to the CIA World Fact Book if you live in the USA your life expectancy is estimated to be 78.11 years which makes the US number 50 in the world (actually it's 49 -- since for some bizarre reason they've chosen to list the European Union in their survey, while listing each individual nation separately as well.)

While it is true the life expectancy in the US is behind you lesser nations ( :sarcasm: ) like Ireland (47), Denmark (46), South Korea (40) , Finland (37), the United Kingdom (36), Belgium (33) , Norway (24), Sweden (10), France (9), Canada (8), Australia (7), Hong Kong (6), San Marino (5), Singapore (4) , Japan (3), Andorra (2) and Macau (1)

The US is ahead of nations like Albania (51), Kuwait (53), Costa Rica (54), Slovenia (60), Uruguay, Mexico, The Turks and Caicos Islands, The West Bank, China, Vietnam, Sudan and Swaziland.

Now...Aren't we all proud?

The difference between 1 and 50 is about six years 84.26 and 78.11
23 countries have a life expectancy of over 80 years
In 1999, the US had a longer life expectancy than Denmark, South Korea, Bosnia and Ireland.


link:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html


edited to add number 6 Hong Kong

[Frank Booth]

1. Fucking Albanians, man.

[XemaSab]

2. I'll say it:

It's a diet based on crap and a complete inattention to preventive care.

[rpannier]

5. Agreed

Australia is 7th and Australians drink heavily and eat a lot of crappy food, but they do see their doctors, the do get out and are a rather active society.

Koreans and Japanese smoke rather heavily, but again they get annual check-ups, they have good diets, etc

The US eats crappy food, doesn't exercise and doesn't see a doctor

[XemaSab]

8. My friends who have been to Australia

say that NOBODY is fat there.

Meanwhile, Shasta county has a 56% obesity rate.

[rpannier]

10. I've been to Australia

I work with Australians here in Korea

They eat crappy food

[XemaSab]

12. But are they skinny?

:shrug:

[rpannier]

14. Skinny...No

Athletic...Yes

They look like Footie players -- the men, not the women

[Libertas1776]

3. Macau,

the most densely populated country in the world, is numero uno? I find that very surprising.

[rpannier]

4. I was surprised about Hong Kong too

But I've seen them near the top on all life expectancy charts

[Frank Booth]

6. Actually, Macau's not a country. It's a special administrative region of China, and

before that was a colony of Portugal.

It's a bit worrisome that the CIA couldn't get that one right.

[Libertas1776]

7. In essence

Macau and Hong Kong, the 2 so called Special Administrative Regions are de facto countries, as their population size, life expectancy, GDP, government systems, economic systems, currency etc are independent and different of the larger PRC.

[Mari333]

9. My 83 yr old mother will get a kick out of this

her sister is 96 and still goes to the casinos.

and they are both large women.

something in the genes maybe.

[Louisiana1976]

11. Did you know that the life expectancy of New Orleans' African-Americans

rivals that of the people of North Korea?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6583135

[XemaSab]

13. That's the other point I was going to make upthread

If half of the country has a life expectancy of 88, and the other half has a life expectancy of 68, then viola: 78.

[Libertas1776]

15. Only possible

in the greatest country in the world :sarcasm:

[brettdale]

16. we are number 18th

Go New Zealand!!!!!!!

[reggie the dog]

17. We're number 9

Here in France.

[DCKit]

18. Not sure I want to know how much influence infant mortality has on those figures. n/t

Perhaps that might be a good question for the Pro-Fetus Wingnuts. "Sorry kid, once you're out of the womb, you're on your own."

[JackRiddler]

19. Look at the list without the city-states and principalities.

Macau covers 1/6 the area of Washington DC and has 550,000 people in it. San Marino is like 1/3 of Washington DC and has a population of 30,000! Andorra has 80,000. Imagine the "Upper East Side" of Manhattan (richest zipcodes in the USA) were a country. It would have an astonishing life expectancy.

Most of the top 30 are like that, micro-principalities and city-states. Some are mainly tax havens where rich people pretend to live, like Monaco and the Caymans.

So the "real" number 1 is Japan, which is incredible given that it's also in the top 5 for population worldwide, followed by Australia, Canada and France.

Here's the list minus the mini-countries. That is, roughly speaking. I suppose we should allow Hong Kong with its 7 million people and Singapore with 4.6 million. But both are not and could never be their own ecological systems, both depend on food and resources from countrysides not included in their borders. It's as though we separated a few rich cities from a large country and praised them for their long life-spans as though this would be possible if these cities were not effectively exploiting the rest of that country. You might make the same case for Japan, which sustains a very high and dense population in a small area by importing grain: in effect, they buy their long lifespans by being very rich.

(1) Japan 82.12

(Singapore 81.98) - city-state

(Hong Kong 81.86) - city-state

(2) Australia 81.63

(3) Canada 81.23

(4) France 80.98

(5) Sweden 80.86

(6) Switzerland 80.85

(7) Israel 80.73

(Iceland 80.67) - pop. 300,000

(8) New Zealand 80.36

(9) Italy 80.20

(10) Spain 80.05

(11) Norway 79.95

(12) Greece 79.66

I shall now totally unfairly assign the above to the following categories:

- blessed by nature and prevalent cuisine: the Mediterranean countries (4)
- blessed by low population on huge area with resources: Australia.
- rich mothers who buy it, but have decent welfare systems too: Japan, Switzerland.
- rich, but have their shit together systemically: France, Canada, Sweden, Norway
- city-states appearing adavantaged by being considered in isolation from their countrysides: Singapore, Hong Kong (add them to "rich mothers who buy it").