Compared Longevity

I was feeling too tired to write anything, overwhelmed by the runaway tabs in my browser and so many ideas that would take too much time. But then I saw this:


At first I thought Minnesota had the longest life expectancy in the U.S. at 81.1 years, but then realized Hawaii was hiding out down there below Texas with 81.3 years.

But still. Woohoo! We beat Wisconsin by over a year and Iowa by almost a year and a half.

This made me curious about the countries that have higher life expectancies than the U.K. and Minnesota. I knew Japan would be near or at the top, but who else would accompany them?

Here's what the Wikipedia has to say, based on 2013 data:

1 Monaco 86.5
2 Japan 84.6
3 Andorra 84.2
5 Hong Kong China 83.8
6 San Marino 83.5
7 Iceland 83.3
8 Italy 83.1
9 Australia 83
10 Sweden 83
11 Switzerland 82.8
12 Canada 82.5
13 France 82.3 79
14 Israel 82.1
15 Spain 82
16 Luxembourg 82
17 Norway 81.9
18 New Zealand 81.7
19 Austria 81.5
20 Netherlands 81.5
21 Ireland 81.4
22 Cyprus 81.2

All of those countries have longer life expectancies than Minnesota. If we omit the principalities, cities like Hong Kong, and countries with populations under a million, which seem like unfair comparisons with larger and more divergent populations, we're left with:

1 Japan 84.6
2 Italy 83.1
3 Australia 83
4 Sweden 83
5 Switzerland 82.8
6 Canada 82.5
7 France 82.3 79
8 Israel 82.1
9 Spain 82
10 Norway 81.9
12 New Zealand 81.7
13 Austria 81.5
14 Netherlands 81.5
15 Ireland 81.4
17 Cyprus 81.2

So congratulations to those countries with their single-payer medical systems and mostly more relaxed approaches to work. (Italy, I'm looking at you.) Clearly, it pays off.