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South Koreans’ life expectancy nears 82 years

December 3, 2014
(Yonhap)

(Yonhap)

(Yonhap) — The life expectancy for babies born in 2013 rose to nearly 82 years as improvements in technologies and medical care helped reduce death risks, a government report showed Wednesday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, babies born last year are expected to live an average of 81.9 years, up from the previous year’s 81.4 years.

Male and female babies are expected to live 78.5 years and 85.1 years. The figures are higher than the previous year’s 77.9 and 84.6.

The life expectancies for male and female babies here are 1 year and 2.2 years longer than the average for member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the report showed.

The gap in life expectancy between men and women also narrowed to an all-time low of 6.5 years.

The chances that they could lose their life to cancer in the future stood at 28.1 percent for male babies and 16.6 percent for female babies.

If the death risk from cancer is excluded, the life expectancies for male and female babies would increase by 4.7 years and 2.8 years, according to the report.