WHO Reports Global Life Expectancy Nears Pre-Pandemic Levels, Noncommunicable Diseases Dominate Mortality
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new Global Health Estimates indicating that global life expectancy has largely recovered to pre-pandemic levels, reaching 73.3 years in 2023, just shy of the 73.4 years recorded in 2019. However, healthy life expectancy has shown a slower recovery, standing at 62.8 years in 2023, which is 0.4 years below its 2019 figure. A significant trend highlighted in the report is the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which accounted for 74% of global deaths in 2023, a substantial rise from 58% in 2000. Eight of the top ten leading causes of death globally in 2023 were NCDs. This shift is evident across all income levels, with communicable diseases accounting for less than half of all deaths in low-income countries for the first time in 2023. Cardiovascular diseases, particularly ischaemic heart disease, remain the leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide, causing approximately 9.5 million deaths and 210 million disability-adjusted lif...