As the world advances in public health and medical interventions, significant increases in global life expectancy are anticipated by 2050. A recent analysis of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 study reveals promising projections for both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy across various regions. A recent article delves into the key findings of the GBD 2021 study, examining the factors driving these changes and exploring alternative scenarios that could further impact global health outcomes.
Two future scenarios that I have tracked are healthy life extension and radical life extension. To extend our heathy lives is to ensure that we not only live longer, but we do so in a healthy and productive way. The implications of healthy life extension are wide reaching. When combined with several other societal shifts, we find ourselves moving from a four-segment life cycle to a five-segment life cycle.
As the Industrial Revolution gathered momentum, circa 1800, virtually all countries had a life expectancy at or below 40 years; today, just six countries have a life expectancy below 60 years. Put another way, a daughter born into a family in Lesotho or the Central African Republic — the countries with the lowest life expectancy today, each at around 53 years — can expect to live a longer and healthier life than the newborn daughter of an Englishman or American in the year 1800.
Tony Morley – 9 astonishing ways that living standards have improved around the world
Reimagining the Future 