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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 28, 2002

China's Life Expectancy Averaged 71.8 years

The year 2001 saw China's average life expectancy reached 71.8 years, as is told by sources from a 2002 national conference on senior people sports being presently held in Shanghai.


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The year 2001 saw China's average life expectancy reached 71.8 years, as is told by sources from a 2002 national conference on senior people sports being presently held in Shanghai.

Thanks to improved living conditions and medical facilities, as well as promoted nationwide fitness campaign, China's average life expectancy has been climbing steadily in recent years. Statistics show the average lifespan of the Chinese people was 67.77 years in 1981, which has increased by 4 years in two decades. While before the advent of New China in 1949, the figure only stood at 35 years.

Average life expectancy refers to a scientific way to calculate and tell a person how many years he is expected to live under a certain death level. The method is to follow an age group of people who were born in the same time and record the number of deaths at each age period until the last person dies. The average lifespan of the group, when taken to represent the average lifespan of a whole generation, turns into the average life expectancy. It is hard to follow the whole life course of a large age group of people. Their death rate at different ages in a certain year would usually be replaced by the death rate of different aged people in the same year to finally figure out the average life expectancy of different age groups.

A country that has an average life expectancy over 70 years joins in the rank of long-life countries according to World Health Organization standards. Presently the average life expectancy for developed countries is 75 years while the figure registers at 63 years for developing countries according to a UN report on world population expectations revised in 2000.



By PD Online Staff Member Li Heng




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