Life expectancy rises in Turkey

by Fatih Erel

GENEVA

Turkey is one of the countries with major progress in life expectancy, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

"Turkey made the major gains in life expectancy from 1990 to 2012," WHO Director of the Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems, Ties Boerma told Anadolu Agency in the UN Office at Geneva.

Noting that there is a decline in child mortality in Turkey, Boerma said the levels of mortality in Turkey are now very close to other high-income countries. 

Boerma said a newborn child in Turkey lives 10 years longer on average than it did in 1990.

He said the life expectancy in Turkey is 75 years according to WHO statistics and on avarage, women in Turkey live 78 years while men live 72 years.

Indicating that health services in the county are reachable to all population whether one lives in far-away rural areas, Boerma said Turkey's health system has been studied by other countries to see how this success was achieved in these past two decades. 

Boerma also said apart from Turkey, overall in the countries around the Mediteranean like Spain, Italy, the life expentancy is high which has been studied in research and he added that favorable diet and lifestyle are contributing factors. 

In order to increase Turkey's life expectancy over 80 years like other high-income countries, Boerma said reducing risk behavior as much as possible is essential as smoking, lack of physical exercise are the main factors which increase the obesity and diabetes risk factors in Turkey.

According to WHO statistics, women in Japan on avarage live 87 years which put Japan at the top of life expectancy list and followed by Spain, Switzerland, Singapore and Italy with 85 years each.

The longest male life expectancy is in Iceland with 81 years and followed by Switzerland, Australia, Israel and Singapore with 80 years each.

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