Life expectancy in North America 2020
Life expectancy in North America
Of those considered in this statistic, the life expectancy of female Canadian infants born in 2020 was the longest, at 84 years. Female infants born in America that year had a similarly high life expectancy of 81 years. Male infants, meanwhile, had lower life expectancies of 80 years (Canada) and 76 years (USA).
Compare this to the worldwide life expectancy for babies born in 2020: 75 years for women and 70 years for men. Of continents worldwide, North America ranks equal first in terms of life expectancy of (77 years for men and 81 years for women). Life expectancy is lowest in Africa at just 62 years and 65 years for males and females respectively. Hong Kong SAR is the country with the highest life expectancy worldwide for babies born in 2018.
Life expectancy is calculated according to current mortality rates of the population in question. Global variations in life expectancy are caused by differences in medical care, public health and diet, and reflect global inequalities in economic circumstances. Africa’s low life expectancy, for example, can be attributed in part to the AIDS epidemic. In 2019, around 72,000 people died of AIDS in South Africa, the largest amount worldwide. Mozambique , Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya were also high on the list of countries ranked by AIDS deaths that year. Likewise, Africa has by far the highest rate of mortality by communicable disease (i.e. AIDS, neglected tropics diseases, malaria and tuberculosis).