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Spatiotemporal evolution and characteristics of worldwide life expectancy

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Abstract

Exploring global differences in life expectancy can facilitate the development of strategies to narrow regional disparities. However, few researchers have systematically examined patterns in the evolution of worldwide life expectancy over a long time period. Spatial differences among 181 countries in 4 types of worldwide life expectancy patterns from 1990 to 2019 were investigated via geographic information system (GIS) analysis. The aggregation characteristics of the spatiotemporal evolution of life expectancy were revealed by local indicators of spatial association. The analysis employed spatiotemporal sequence-based kernel density estimation and explored the differences in life expectancy among regions with the Theil index. We found that the global life expectancy progress rate shows upward then downward patterns over the last 30 years. Female have higher rates of spatiotemporal progression in life expectancy than male, with less internal variation and a wider spatial aggregation. The global spatial and temporal autocorrelation of life expectancy shows a weakening trend. The difference in life expectancy between male and female is reflected in both intrinsic causes of biological differences and extrinsic causes such as environment and lifestyle habits. Investment in education pulls apart differences in life expectancy over long time series. These results provide scientific guidelines for obtaining the highest possible level of health in countries around the world.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NFSC) (Grant No. 41930104 and Grant No. 41971341).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Smart Cities, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Yaxing Li, Xiaoming Li, Weixi Wang, Renzhong Guo & Xiaojin Huang

  2. College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 119077, Singapore

    Yaxing Li

  3. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Spatial Smart Sensing and Services & MNR Technology Innovation Center of Territorial & Spatial Big Data & Guangdong–Hong Kong-Macau Joint Laboratory for Smart Cities, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Xiaoming Li, Weixi Wang & Renzhong Guo

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  1. Yaxing Li
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Yaxing Li, Xiaoming Li, Weixi Wang, and Xiaojin Huang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Renzhong Guo and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors would like to thank the three reviewers and the editor for their suggestions, based on which we have revised this article.

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Li, Y., Li, X., Wang, W. et al. Spatiotemporal evolution and characteristics of worldwide life expectancy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 87145–87157 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28330-1

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