People worldwide living longer, and those living in Japan live longest, to age 87

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 16 (UPI) -- People worldwide are living longer, but women living in Japan, Spain, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy, France, Australia, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg and Portugal live the longest.

The report, World Health Statistics 2014, published by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, found a girl born in 2012 could expect to live to about age 73, while a boy could live to about age 68 -- six years longer than the average global life expectancy for a child born in 1990.

Men live the longest in Iceland -- to age 81.2, followed by Switzerland, Australia, Israel, Singapore, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Sweden and Luxembourg.

Low-income countries made the greatest life expectancy progress with an average increase in life expectancy of nine years from 1990 to 2012.

The six countries where life expectancy increased the most were: Liberia which increased from age 42 in 1990 to age 62 in 2012, Ethiopia from age 45 to 64, Maldives age 58 to 77, Cambodia from age 54 to 72 years, Timor-Leste to age 50 to 66 and Rwanda age 48 to 65.

"An important reason why global life expectancy has improved so much is that fewer children are dying before their fifth birthday," Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said in a statement.

"But there is still a major rich-poor divide: people in high-income countries continue to have a much better chance of living longer than people in low-income countries."

Whereever they live, women can expect to live longer than men. However, the gap between male and female life expectancy was greater in high-income countries where women live about six years longer than men. In low-income countries, the difference in life expectancy was about three years.