Chinese citizens are now living as long as Americans, reaching a milestone nearly two decades earlier than experts had forecast, according to official data.
Why It Matters
Life expectancy in China has risen sharply in recent decades, driven by improvements in nutrition, sanitation, access to clean water and expanded healthcare as the country’s economy has grown.
By contrast, the United States now lags behind most developed countries in life expectancy, weighed down by the rise of lifestyle-related diseases and the ongoing opioid epidemic.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
What To Know
By the end of 2024, average life expectancy in China reached 79 years for the first time, according to health authorities who shared the figure at a September 11 press conference on achievements made during the current five-year plan, set by the Chinese Communist Party in 2021.
And eight provinces enjoy a life expectancy of 80 years, said Chinese National Health Commission chief Lei Haichao.
The statistic, first reported in March, represents a one-year increase in life expectancy since 2020 and is the first time China has reached parity with its economic rival, the United States.
The United Nations Population Division had previously forecast that China would not achieve this milestone until 2044.
That upward trajectory stands in contrast to the United States, where life expectancy virtually flatlined during the 2010s and even dipped slightly on occasions during the 2010s—a trend blamed in large part on a surge in deaths from overdoses from the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by eight months during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Although U.S. life expectancy has rebounded somewhat since 2022, health experts point out that it still trails most of the developed world, despite America spending more per capita on healthcare than any other nation.
What People Are Saying
Lei Haichao, director of China’s National Health Commission, said during the September 11 press briefing: “Over the past five years, we have upheld the principle that people and life come first, resulting in continuous improvement in the health of our residents.”
Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health, told CNN: “It’s important for Americans to understand that getting back to where we were before the pandemic is still not a very good place. We’re hardly out of the woods.
“And that difference in life expectancy between the United States and other countries means, in plain English, that Americans are dying at much higher rates than their peers in other high-income countries.”