Koreans’ life expectancy tops 82 years
Korean babies born last year are expected to live on average 82.1 years. The life expectancy of Koreans increased by 0.3 years from the previous year as the death rates fell in most of the age brackets.
According to Statistics Korea, Friday, baby boys born last year are expected to live for 79 years on average, while baby girls are likely to live 85.2 years. That is 20.2 years longer than baby boys born in 1970 and 19.4 years more than baby girls born in the same year.
The statistics also show that 56.5 percent of the baby boys born last year are expected to reach 80, while 77.7 percent of baby girls will become octogenarians.
Korea ranked 12th among 35 OECD member countries in life expectancy.
By gender, Korean males rank 18th in the OECD in life expectancy, while Korean females rank seventh. Japanese females are expected to live the longest — 86.8 years — followed by Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland. Among males, Iceland tops the list with 81.3 years, followed by Switzerland, Italy and Japan.
Korean males are expected to live 1.1 years longer than the OECD average, while it is 1.9 years more for Korean females.
The gap between the life expectancies of men and women is also narrowing. In 1985, Korean females were expected to live 8.6 years longer than males, but the gap narrowed to 6.2 last year. The statistical office attributed it to improvement in the life expectancy of males. However, the gap is still wider than the OECD average of 5.4 years.
The chances that a person could die of cancer in the future stood at 27.3 percent for male babies and 16.1 percent for female babies.
The life expectancies for male and female babies would increase by 5.1 years and 2.9 years, each, if the death risk from cancer would be excluded, according to the statistical office.
The probability of dying from heart disease stood at 9.7 percent for baby boys born last year and 12.6 percent for baby girls. The chances of dying of cerebrovascular diseases stood at 8.6 percent for males and 10 percent for females.