Korean Life Expectancy 83.6 Years... Women 86.6 Years, Men 80.6 Years

Statistics Korea, 2021 Life Table... 2nd Among 38 OECD Countries for Women, 9th for Men

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The life expectancy of Koreans has risen to 83.6 years. For men, it is 80.6 years, and for women, 86.6 years, with a gender gap in life expectancy of 6 years.

According to the '2021 Life Table' released by Statistics Korea on the 6th, the life expectancy of babies born last year was calculated to be 83.6 years.

Life expectancy is an estimate of how long a newborn aged 0 can live, assuming that the current age-specific mortality rates remain constant. It has been increasing every year since statistics began in 1970.

The life expectancy of babies born last year increased by 0.1 years compared to one year ago (83.5 years), and rose by 3.0 years compared to ten years ago (80.6 years).

The gender gap in life expectancy was 6.0 years, showing a decreasing trend since peaking at 8.6 years in 1985. This means that baby girls born last year are expected to live 6.0 years longer than baby boys.

Korea's life expectancy was higher than the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by 2.9 years for men and 3.5 years for women. Among countries, female life expectancy was the second highest among the 38 OECD countries, following Japan (87.7 years). Male life expectancy ranked joint 9th in the OECD along with Italy, unchanged from the previous year.

If cancer, one of the top three causes of death, were eliminated, the life expectancy of babies born last year is estimated to increase by 4.3 years for men and 2.6 years for women. Overall, for both genders, it would increase by 3.5 years.

If heart disease were eliminated, life expectancy would increase by 1.3 years for men and 1.2 years for women, and if pneumonia were removed as a cause, life expectancy would increase by 1 year for men and 0.7 years for women.

The survival probability by age group was higher for women than men in most age groups. The probability that babies born last year will survive up to age 80 was 63.1% for men and 81.7% for women. Compared to the previous year, this increased by 0.5 percentage points for men and 0.2 percentage points for women. The probability of surviving to 100 years old was 1.4% for men and 5.5% for women.

Expected remaining years of life, which estimates how much longer people of certain age groups can live, are gradually increasing. A 60-year-old man last year was expected to live an additional 23.5 years, and a woman 28.4 years. Both men and women saw an increase of 0.1 years compared to the previous year, and an increase of 2.4 years compared to ten years ago.