Why human life expectancy has not risen since 2011 despite advances in medicine

Medical breakthroughs which for more than two decades lengthened human lifespans have been offset by physical inactivity and unhealthy diets

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There has been an increase in “major risks” such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, a lot of it down to obesity and poor diets. This has meant growth in life expectancy has stalled.
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Published: 7:15pm, 25 Feb 2025Updated: 7:28pm, 25 Feb 2025

Tantalising notions of long life, even immortality, have always been part of human consciousness, recurring in religion, literature, cinema, music, even consumer goods.

The opening chapters of the Bible’s Old Testament describe lifespans measured in centuries, with Adam making it to 930 years old, Noah to 950 and Methuselah to 969.

From the Elysian Fields to Peter Pan and Highlander, as well as the anti-ageing creams and life-extending diet fads doing the rounds, many people find something compelling about living forever and staying forever young.

Life expectancy is higher today than in previous eras. However, it appears that it has hit a wall since 2011, in Europe at least.

We are no longer living longer, according to dozens of researchers from the University of East Anglia, the University of Exeter and the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK, and the University of Washington and its Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in the United States.

The decades between 1990 and 2011 saw “substantial improvements in life expectancy” because of advances in the treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancers. Photo: Shutterstock

“The food we eat, physical inactivity and obesity are largely to blame, as well as the Covid pandemic,” the team said, after studying health data for European countries taken from the IHME’s Global Burden of Disease 2021 report.