Australians have the highest life expectancy of all the English-speaking world – and by a significant margin – according to new research. But why? What are we doing that the others aren’t?
A paper published in the esteemed medical journal BMJ Open, comparing life expectancy levels in six high-income Anglophone countries between 1990 and 2019, has found Australian women live on average between 1.26 and 3.95 years longer than their peers, and Aussie men between 0.97 and 4.88 years longer.
The researchers looked at life expectancies in Canada, the US, UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia and found we have lower mortality across all age groups, but particularly between the ages of 45 and 84.
The data showed we perform better than the others when it comes to mortality from external causes, which includes drug- and alcohol-related deaths, influenza, COVID, pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.
Older Australians are also less likely to die from cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality rates for all age groups are lower in Australia than the others – except for American men aged 65 and over.
Why are we living longer?
The paper’s authors suggest that the difference may be down to lower levels of what they term ‘geographic inequality’, or differences in life expectancy between different regions within a country.
All Australian states and territories, apart from the Northern Territory, had life expectancies within the top two brackets for men (78.5-82.1 years) and top three brackets for women (83.0-85.6 years).
Differences in wealth and access to healthcare between Australian states and territories are much less than the differences between the southeastern and northeastern United States, or the north/south divide in the UK.
Still, life expectancy in the NT is concerningly low, showing we still have some way to go in bringing up the life expectancy of all Australians. Life expectancy for both men (74.5-75.4 years) and women (80.0-80.9 years) fall into the second lowest age brackets.
The researchers found areas with higher numbers of Indigenous people, such as the NT but also New Zealand and Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada tended to have lower life expectancy rates.
“While Australia had the lowest within-country geographic inequality, we still found disparities,” the report states.
“Life expectancy in the worst-performing Northern Territory, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up 30.8 per cent of the population was 6.20 (men) and 4.96 (women) years lower than in the highest-performing state.”
Are we doing anything different?
So, is it just a matter of a slightly more egalitarian society than our Anglophone cousins or are we actually doing something here that’s giving us the longevity edge?
The report’s authors note that we have lower levels of smoking here and that Australia had faster reductions in smoking-attributable mortality since the 1980s and the lowest level of smoking-attributable mortality by the early 2000s among the six countries.
They point out that this would have a knock-on effect on mortality rates for respiratory diseases, cancers and circulatory diseases.
Australia’s healthcare system was also singled out for praise, with the researchers finding our system outperformed that of the UK, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
“Australia experiences a mortality advantage from circulatory and respiratory diseases, cancers and perinatal and congenital conditions, which are linked to superior healthcare system performance,” the report reads.
Another interesting point made by the researchers is the role played by Australia’s high immigration levels. Australia has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents of the six countries analysed, at 30 per cent.
The researchers say prior studies have found that immigrants tend to have higher life expectancy than native-born populations, increasing overall national life expectancy levels.
Are you surprised that Aussies live longer than those in other Anglophone countries? What else do you think is contributing to the difference? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Life expectancy tumbles for the first time in decades
