The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced human lifespan. According to their latest report, the average global lifespan has decreased by 1.5 years due to the pandemic. In India, the lifespan, which had been increasing steadily over the past decade, saw a sharp decline due to COVID-19, dropping by 1.8 years to 71.4 years.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, the average lifespan in India was around 73 years. However, the devastating impact of COVID-19 over the past two years has reversed a decade's worth of progress in life expectancy. The WHO report also highlighted that the healthy life expectancy, which refers to the number of years a person can expect to live in good health, has decreased to 61 years in India.
Globally, the WHO's World Health Statistics report shows a significant reduction in life expectancy in regions like the USA and Northeast Asia, where it decreased by three years between 2019 and 2021. During the same period, the healthy life expectancy in these regions dropped by 2.5 years. WHO scientists noted that while COVID-19's impact on lifespan varied across countries, the Western Pacific region saw the least reduction, with life expectancy dropping by less than a year and healthy life expectancy by less than two years.
