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Guernsey ninth in world for longevity

Guernsey ninth in world for longevity

Wednesday 11 July 2018

Guernsey ninth in world for longevity

Wednesday 11 July 2018


In a worldwide survey released naming the top 15 countries with the highest life expectancy, Guernsey has come ninth.

The survey by the Central Intelligence Agency tracked the average life expectancy for every country or island in the world and said that places that offer the highest quality of life tend to have the longest-living citizens.

The States of Guernsey 2017 'fact and figures' booklet lists overall life expectancy at birth in the three year period from 2014 to 2016 at 82.7 years. The average life expectancy at birth for women (84.4 years) was 3.5 years longer than the average life expectancy for men (80.9 years).

The CIA survey stated that Guernsey born residents had an average life expectancy of 82.60 years and whilst people are living longer nowadays due to medical and technological advancement that has made life better and easier it does seem to be that where you live also has a bearing on your life span. 

Whilst these figures are encouraging it would seem that many residents are living above and beyond the statistics with our oldest living resident currently in her 109th year. Ruth Berry turned 108 in November 2017 and has previously said that her positive outlook was the key to long and healthy life.

Ruth Berry

Pictured: Ruth Berry in 2014 celebrating her 105th birthday

Also joining the centenarian club as he celebrates his 100th birthday this week is Ernie Sauvage; a Muratti legend. To mark the occasion island footballer Sam Cochrane presented Mr Sauvage with a unique Guernsey FC shirt with the number 100 on it. Mr Cochrane said: "It was a proud moment and one of my favourite moments off the field."

 Ernie_100pg.jpg

Pictured: Sam Cochrane presenting Ernie Sauvage a shirt for his 100th birthday

Jersey came 20th on the list. 

The report stated that many people look at a nation's given life expectancy and take it to mean that the average person in a particular country lives to a particular age, while the reality is more complicated. Mathematically, the largest driving factor in life expectancy isn't the longevity of the country's oldest citizens, but the number of people who die young.

With that in mind, one can view life expectancy as a measure of a range of public health factors: access to childcare services, traffic safety, hospital capacity, prevalence of smoking and so on.

The top 10 list of countries and their life expectancy is below:

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