According to a recent study and report released by the World Health Organization WHO, the average life expectancy in Nigeria for 2018 is now 55 years.
This indicates an improvement on the 47 years life expectancy rate previously accredited to the country.
According to PREMIUM Times, the 2018 data shows Nigeria has a World life expectancy ranking of 178 out of 192 ranked countries.
The WHO report also shows that Nigerian males born in 2018 on the average, is expected to live approximately 54.7 years.
While a female is expected to live approximately 55.7 years in good health.
The recent study is an improvement on the released statistical report by Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for 2017, which stated that females can live for approximately 51 years while males can live for just 47 years.
Causes of death and a shorter life span as listed in the report are conditions such as influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhoea diseases, stroke.
Others are, HIV/AIDS, coronary heart disease, liver disease, prostate cancer, diabetes mellitus, maternal conditions, malaria, breast cancer, meningitis, cervical cancer, lung disease and low birth weight.
The study further indicates that accident, road traffic and birth trauma among others are also major causes of death in the country.
The research with the title “Forecasting life expectancy, years of life lost, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 250 causes of death: reference and alternative scenarios for 2016–40 for 195 countries and territories using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016,” was done by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
IHME is an independent global health research organisation at the University of Washington that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them.
A study published last week had forecasted an increase in life expectancy rate for Nigeria to about 74.8 years by 2040.
