6- Health

Did you know?
Japan, Iceland, Spain and Switzerland have the highest life expectancies in the World – just over 80 years. Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia have the lowest – all under 40 years. The lowest regions are all Sub-Sahara Africa at 47 years and the Indian sub-continent at 64 years.
In virtually all countries life expectancies at birth are higher for women than for men. For the world as a whole female life expectancy is currently about 6% higher than for men.

Did you know?
For the population as a whole, the four main causes of death are circulatory diseases such as strokes and heart attacks, cancers, respiratory diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema, and external causes such as suicide, homicide and traffic accidents.
At any given age, men are more likely to die from one of these conditions than are women. However, eventually these same sources of mortality are the reason why most women die as well – they are just more likely to strike women at an older age.

Did you know?
The World Health Organisation estimates that over 15 billion cigarettes are smoked each day. One in three of these is smoked in China. The United States is the next biggest cigarette market followed by Japan, Russia and Indonesia.
Globally, far more men than women smoke although the gender gap is falling and cigarette advertising is increasingly aimed at women in Asia and other developing countries. In OECD countries, however, the most important change has been a decline in smoking by men. Women do also smoke less than previously, but the rate of decline has been much slower.

Did you know?
The standard test of being overweight is the Body Mass Index or BMI. It is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres (kg/m²). According to the World Health Organisation guidelines, a BMI of 25 to 30 is considered “overweight” and more than 30 is considered “obese”.
More men than women are overweight but obesity is pretty evenly distributed in all OECD countries. For most countries in the charts below, the statistics were obtained by “self assessment” surveys, but in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, actual measurements were made. The percentages for these five countries are among the highest in the OECD region. This is no coincidence.