Top 10 Hotspots For Human Longevity

By Miriam Weiner for U.S. News Health

In 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León set sail in search of Bimini, a mythical land said to house a spring that restored youth to anyone who drank from it. After scouring the Caribbean and Florida, he returned empty-handed, and the Fountain of Youth remained undiscovered. Perhaps he was just looking in the wrong place.

As part of their data collection for the World Factbook, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) combs through death certificates, recording race, gender, cause of death and other factors to estimate the life expectancy of a nation's entire population. Calculating the average life expectancy of the world's total population at 67.59 years, the CIA has determined which societies live longer.

In the United states, average life expectancy is 78.49 years, well above the world's norm. Many experts attribute this to ongoing medical developments, which have dealt with conditions that used to mow us down early. Meanwhile, nations without advanced medical care report a much shorter life expectancy. For instance, citizens of the Republic of Chad in central Africa are only expected to live until their late 40s.

Despite the fact that the average American lives into his or her late 70s, the United States ranks 50th on the CIA's life expectancy list. According to the World Factbook, these 10 nations seem to have discovered the secret to longevity -- no magical spring water required.

For more on aging, click here.

Comments

[Ruben Campbell]

11:59 PM on 07/06/2012

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[Vitaly Shadov]

08:11 AM on 03/21/2012

I like it.

[happyone6470]

03:15 PM on 03/18/2012

I wouldn't call Cuba a wealthy country and their life expectancy is greater than ours . One thing that's wrong with us is our lifestyle .. Our diet and lack of exercise .

[summoningki]

01:49 PM on 03/18/2012

National health care is not the only common denominator here, also note Wealth, a decent diet and some excercise. So it would appear your best bet for a long life is to be rich, live in a country with national health care and eat a diet that does not include Mc Fatties, while getting some exercise and not allowing your enviroment to be poluted. So if the president will kindly send out a check to every american for at least one million dollars to deposit in a Swiss or Cayman Islands account, give us national health care, make employers give us back the lunch HOUR so we don't have to go to fast food places and can afford to eat healthy food instead of crap, with time to go for a walk afterwards to burn some calories, and make sure to enforce the laws against the various forms of polution, we can live longer, healthier and happier lives. Now that would be real trickle down economics.

[tvLestat]

03:25 PM on 03/18/2012

maybe you should consider bringing your own healthy lunch to work instead of getting fast food. personal responsibility

[lhollis668]

01:06 PM on 03/18/2012

Might have something to do with their healthcare systems and diet. The majority of these countries provide some sort of nationa healthcare to their citizens. It can make a difference!

[Bowfarmer]

12:01 PM on 03/18/2012

Japan is a wonderful place to live. For as densely populated as it is, there is a lot of natural beauty. A big difference between Japan and the US is the portion sizes of servings in restaurants. The servings sizes in the US are easily two to three to four times as large as what is served in Japan.

[Judy Thomas-Klein]

11:09 AM on 03/18/2012

I would think that Japan and places in the oreint you would not live longer. Dont they have alot of air polution? Dont they live right on top of each other? How can you live longer like that? What about Montana, Hawaii, and places like that? I dont get it.

[das govt]

03:12 PM on 03/18/2012

Only small areas have bad air pollution (dont believe everything fox news says basically) and only in a few areas do they live like packrats. As far as Montana 5 words POOR DIET AND AMERICAN HEALTHCARE, and for Hawaii POOR DIET AND AMERICAN HEALTHCARE. The healthcare systems used in these parts of the world are excellent and prove that our system is in need of reform. The USA only is number one when it comes to warfare and war tech.

[The Best Opinion]

10:32 AM on 03/18/2012

I knew when I read this that the bleeding heart progressives would jump on the bandwagon for Socialized healthcare! The fact that most of these countries ate fish, veggies, were educated, successful and had an active lifestyle doesn't really matter to progressives. In their simplistic minds the ends justify means even if the "means" are illegal, immoral or flat out lies! The Left uses the government dependant as pawns to further their own sick agenda!

[das govt]

03:30 PM on 03/18/2012

I knew when i read this article i would see conservatives jumping on the bandwagon to continue screwing others less fortunate than themselves! The fact that in most of these countries their healthcare is provided to anyone and everyone for a little extra tax (something the extremely wealthy wouldn't understand) doesn't really matter to the conservatives. In their selfish minds they want to keep the system the way it is because they're rich and greedy even if it means making the money off of the backs of illegal immigrant workers or by throwing people out on the streets. The right owns the govt via corruption and backdoor deals the likes of which to only further their own personal greed!

[Fergie1]

08:33 AM on 03/21/2012

"were educated". Well according to Ricky Santorum, only snobs think education is necessary. Which way do you want to go with that one?

[Jakpot]

09:05 AM on 03/18/2012

No Libs to put up with = longer life

[felic2011]

09:16 AM on 03/18/2012

Most of these countries have Universal Health Care = less greed = less stress=less Republicans!

[Jakpot]

09:32 AM on 03/18/2012

Check out this awful article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/racist-anti-obama-sticker_n_1349423.html

[Masha1970]

11:38 AM on 03/18/2012

And all citizens work and pay taxes, unlike USA, half of population work and pay taxes, called Republicans, and the other half getting free madicats and education and minimum wage

[Judy Thomas-Klein]

11:10 AM on 03/18/2012

awesome come back. Iam with you 100%

[cqtestk4xs]

08:38 AM on 03/18/2012

Partly genetics, but most of these countries have, GASP!!!!!!!, socialized medical care. This proves just how bad socialized medicine is. The Republicans have this Social Security deficit thing covered. By not having socialized medicine, people will not live as long, thereby saving billions in Social Security payouts. Smart, eh?

[felic2011]

09:20 AM on 03/18/2012

I am from England, I have to say I took my Health Care in England for granted, I now realize what a luxury it was.
Everyone should watch: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld

[The Best Opinion]

09:57 AM on 03/18/2012

cqte, wrong again oh great progressive breath!! While socialized medicine might work if a host of other things were addressed first like the mind set that the government owes me, or that successful people don't deserve the fruits of their labor. All of these countries had one thing in common, personal accountability and several had excellent education systems instead of indoctrination factories like here in America! Another thing is that most ate a lot of fish and veggies. The expectant people in the U.S. are mere pawns that are used for political gain! Democrats have totally ruined the Black family by making them dependant, uneducated and they are kept in check by another government supported leech, planned parenthood! You need to be more aware instead of using MSNBC's talking points!

[RaiderFan13]

11:36 PM on 03/17/2012

The common denominator is ................

health care

get a clue republicans

[The Best Opinion]

10:13 AM on 03/18/2012

raid, How simplistic your post is! I guess that the fact that most ate a lot of fish, veggies and had an active lifestyle didn't matter, did it? How about the fact that most are well educated and successful! Unlike here where the progressive government has created a dependant, uneducated, lazy class that thinks Mcdonalds is their second home! Healthcare....NOT.......how about personal accountability and education!

[proudnative]

12:40 AM on 03/17/2012

I'm seeing a theme here...small, wealthy nations. When you have less people to deal with it's easier to solve a problem. But I must say...I was very impressed by Japan's obesity rate. I was recently discussing with a friend that I have never seen an obese Asian adult.

[RaiderFan13]

11:37 PM on 03/17/2012

Ever watched Sumo ?

[proudnative]

12:27 AM on 03/19/2012

I mean in real life.

[cqtestk4xs]

08:40 AM on 03/18/2012

Lived in on the Big Island in Hawaii until a year ago, huge Japanese population there. Fish and veggies make it difficult to get fat, especially if you lay off the white rice.

[spsagd]

02:37 PM on 03/16/2012

This story is old news that was posted a day or so ago. In addition ther is an underlying subtext that implies government health care will contribute to longer life, I think that the Huffington Post needs to simply indorse President Obama and be done with it.

[RaiderFan13]

11:38 PM on 03/17/2012

Fax is fax

You just can't deal with it

[cqtestk4xs]

08:42 AM on 03/18/2012

That will probably happen when Fox endorses one of the clowns in the GOP parade...like never. Fox is "fair and balanced"....like the butcher who keeps his thumb on the scale.

[mussertimber]

12:05 PM on 03/16/2012

You know these stories are interesting to read-but so-if I move to Italy I can live three years longer? I think the real link to a healthy life is excersise-American love their vehicles-and rather drive then walk-many countries still beleive in an evening stroll after dinner. What I think would be an interesting study is what country has the highest rate of putting the elderly in Nursing Homes? Alot of other countries take in their aging parents.

[Joseph Huether]

11:31 AM on 03/16/2012

Infant mortality rates, which have little or nothing to do with diet, genes or excercise can skew national "life expectancy" averages. It would be interesting to take a look at average life expectancies based on an average for populations already over the age or 18.