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Indonesians can expect longer healthy life, but still short comparatively
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The logo of the World Health Organization (WHO) is pictured on the facade of the WHO headquarters on Oct. 24, 2017 in Geneva. (AFP/ Fabrice Coffrini)
I
ndonesia's healthy life expectancy (HALE) at birth has steadily risen since 2000, but the 2016 figures showed that this was not good enough — at least compared to the global average.
The data indicated how many years a newborn can expect to have a full, healthy life.
The World Health Organization's database shows that Indonesia's HALE average stands at 61.7 years, with women having a longer expectancy at 63 years compared to men at 60.4 years. The global average is 63.3 years for both sexes — 64.8 for women and 62 years for men.
Compared to neighboring Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is only ahead of Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, while on par with the Philippines.
Singapore tops the HALE list in the region by a significant margin. The average Singaporean born in 2016 can expect to live 76.2 years of full health, while the average person in Brunei Darussalam can expect 67.9 years.
The wealthy city-state is also the ranked first in the world, followed by Japan at 74.8 years, Spain at 73.8 years, Switzerland at 73.5 years and France at 73.4 years.
At the bottom five are the Central African Republic, Lesotho, Chad, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. All these countries have an average healthy life expectancy of less than 50 years.
One highlight from the report is that newborns in China can now expect a longer healthy life at 68.7 years, compared to those born in United States at 68.5 years, as reported by China Daily. The margin is slim, but the US’ healthy life expectancy at birth had been steadily falling since 2010, the WHO’s records show. (swd)
