Korean female life expectancy stands at 84

Korean females rank eighth in the world in terms of life expectancy according to the latest statistics.

These were based on a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which was published in Korean Wednesday by the Planned Population Federation of Korea (PPFK).

The report shows that the life expectancy of Korean females was 84 years, higher than the global average of 71.6.

The life expectancy of Korean males was 77.3 years-old which was 26th in the world. The global average for males was 67.1 years.

North Korea ranked 117th in the world for both male and female life expectancies at 65.9 years and 72.1 years, respectively.

The countries that had the longest life expectancy for males were Iceland (80.3 years), Switzerland (80.2 years) and Japan (80.1 years).

As for females, Japan recorded the longest life expectancy of 87.1 years, followed by France (84.9 years) and Spain (84.8 years).

Meanwhile, Korea had a low birthrate compared to its long life expectancy.

Whereas the global average birthrate was 2.5, Korea’s was at 1.4 which was even lower than the developed countries’ average of 1.7. Korea’s birth rate was among the lowest of the 189 countries surveyed. Among the lowest were Bosnia and Herzegovina with 1.1, and Austria, Portugal and Malta with 1.3.

Still, the overall figure of global population is on the rise.

According to the report, the total world population was counted at 7.05 billion this year which is a 78.1 million increase from the previous year. China had the largest population of 1.35 billion followed by India at 1.25 billion and the United States with 315.8 million. The least populous country was Tuvalu with 9,867 people. South Korea ranked 26th with 48.6 million people and North Korea ranked 49th with 24.6 million people. If the numbers for the two countries are added, they rank 19th.

The United Nations Population Fund is an affiliate organization of the United Nations which was established in 1967 to support the population policies of developing countries and improve awareness of population issues.

The Planned Population Federation of Korea started publishing the Korean-language version of the UNFPA population report in 1996.

The 2012 report was published simultaneously worldwide on Wednesday. <The Korea Times/Yun Suh-young>