Encouraging news for the men of Australia, but the research shows they certainly took their time catching up to their female counterparts. As ABS’s director of demography, Denise Carlton says; “Australian women pushed pst the 80-year mark back in 1990, so it’s taken men nearly a quarter of a century” for men to catch up.
Life expectancy for women in Australia, while still sitting impressively at 84.3, has slowed since peaking in the 1990s while men can now expect to see their 80th birthdays representing a remarkable rise in life expectancy since the 77.8 recorded just 10 years ago.
So is it something in the water? What makes Aussies so robust in the realm of length of life? No one would argue that education, access to clean drinking water, healthy food, an amiable climate and living in one of the world’s wealthiest countries has a lot to do with these new stats, but according to the OECD (the organisation committed to the development of some of the world’s 34 richest countries) it essentially boils down to an outstanding health care system. And, in Australia, we’re fortunate to have one of the best health care systems in the world.
Add to this, a sharp decline in tobacco consumption – the OECD says such a decline undoubtedly contributes to chronic diseases thus lowering life expectancies – which can only be attributed to public awareness, advertising bans and increased taxation, and life expectancies are bound to increase.
Of course with any increase in the ageing population of a country, comes a need for adequate services to ensure the quality of life for the elderly contingent of Australia is high and well looked after. After all, just because we’re living longer, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re living better or healthier.
