Global Life Expectancy Expected to Rise by 2050: Men to Gain 5 Years, Women Over 4 Years: A new study published in The Lancet journal predicts that by 2050, life expectancy will increase by nearly five years for men and just over four years for women. This improvement will be most significant in countries currently with lower life expectancies, contributing to a global rise in lifespan.

Researchers attribute this positive trend to effective public health measures that prevent and improve survival rates for cardiovascular diseases, COVID-19, and various communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases.

Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, noted that not only will overall life expectancy rise, but the gap in life expectancy between different regions will also narrow. Although health disparities will persist between high- and low-income areas, these gaps are expected to decrease, with Sub-Saharan Africa seeing the most significant improvements.

The IHME, which leads the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, aims to quantify health loss globally over time. However, the GBD 2021 Forecasting Collaborators warn that the shift in disease burden towards non-communicable diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes—along with risk factors like obesity and high blood pressure—will greatly impact future generations.

This shift is expected to increase the number of years individuals live with disabilities. While people may live longer due to advancements in healthcare, they may also spend more years dealing with poor health.

Healthy life expectancy, which measures the number of years one can live in good health, is projected to rise by 2.6 years globally, from 64.8 years in 2022 to 67.4 years in 2050.

In India, the study projects that by 2050, men could have an average life expectancy of over 75 years, and women could reach almost 80 years. Healthy life expectancy in India is expected to be over 65 years for both men and women.

The GBD 2021 study, involving over 11,000 collaborators, includes more than 607 billion estimates of 371 diseases and injuries and 88 risk factors across 204 countries and territories, according to the IHME.

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