Despite the city’s lifestyle and often choking pollution, its men live longer than those anywhere else on the planet and women’s life expectancy is second only to those in Japan, a Japanese government survey has found.
The average lifespan of a Hong Kong man is 79, ahead of Iceland and Switzerland with 78.9 and 78.6. Japanese men live for an average of 78.53 years.
For women, it is 84.7, just behind Japan, with 85.49, and ahead of Spain at 83.8.
Japanese women have been the longest-lived for 21 consecutive years, but the life expectancy of the country’s men dropped to fourth with 78.53 – the first time in 32 years they were out of the top three places.
The figures are based on the Japanese Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry’s “abridged life tables” which show how long a population at specified ages is expected to live, provided death-related conditions remain unchanged.
A Health Ministry official said the average lifespan of Japanese men and women had fallen slightly from a year ago because of a rise in flu-induced deaths.