Aussie men now live longest in the world

AUSTRALIAN men are now living longer than any other group of males in the world, Australian National University researchers have found.

The study introduces a new way of measuring life expectancy, accounting for the historical mortality conditions that today’s older generations lived through.

By this measure, Australian men, on average, live to 74.1.

The news is good for Australian women too. The study shows they’re ranked second, behind their Swiss counterparts.

ANU’s Dr Collin Payne, who co-led the study, said: “Popular belief has it that Japan and the Nordic countries are doing really well in terms of health, well-being, and longevity. But Australia is right there”.

“The results have a lot to do with long-term stability and the fact Australia’s had a high standard of living for a really, really long time. Simple things like having enough to eat, and not seeing a lot of major conflict play a part.”

Dr Payne said there were a number of factors that might have contributed to Australia jumping ahead in these new rankings.

“Mortality was really high in Japan in the 30s, 40s and 50s. In Australia, mortality was really low during that time,” Dr Payne said.

“French males, for example, drop out because a lot of them died during World War II, some from direct conflict, others from childhood conditions.”

Dr Payne is now hoping to get enough data to look at how rankings have changed over the past 30 or 40 years. The research has been published in the journal Population Studies.