According to an analysis from the 2013 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, the global life expectancy is six years higher than in 1990.
This, according to the study, is thanks to falling death rates recorded from cancer and heart diseases in developed countries as well as better survival in under-developed ones from illnesses such as diarrhea, tuberculosis and malaria.
However, it also shows that while life expectancy is rising in other parts of the world; southern sub-Saharan Africa – where deaths from HIV/AIDS have erased some five years off the people’s life expectancy since 1990 – is an exception.