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Report: U.S. Is on Track to Have Lowest Life Expectancy of ‘Rich’ Countries by 2030

Report: U.S. Is on Track to Have Lowest Life Expectancy of ‘Rich’ Countries by 2030

A new study has reported that the United States will have the lowest life span of the industrialized countries surveyed.

The World Health Organization and Imperial College London analyzed 35 industrialized countries and found that South Korean women are on track to have the highest life expectancy by 2030 and will be the first to have an expectancy over 90.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women are predicted to have a life span of 83 and men of 79—the lowest of the “rich” countries, according to the study.

Life expectancies across the board are projected to increase, and the gap between men’s expectancy and women’s is expected to close. One of the study leaders to the BBC that it is because men’s and women’s lifestyles are becoming more similar, so the life span gap will eventually shrink.

“[Society in the US is] very unequal to an extent the whole national performance is affected—it is the only country without universal health insurance,” Majid Ezzati told BBC. “And it is the first country that has stopped growing taller, which shows something about early life nutrition.”

People living longer has implications for the way the country plans for social security and retirement benefits for the elderly.

Ezzati emphasized that these findings are based on the country’s current trajectory, so a medical breakthrough could significantly change this prediction.

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