WHO’s most current World Health Statistics show that the COVID-19 epidemic has had a major detrimental impact on global health indices. The pandemic, which has swept across all nations, has put an end to the nearly ten-year trend of steady increases in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at birth.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a notable reduction in life expectancy and HALE, according to the WHO’s 2024 World Health Statistics report. Global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years between 2019 and 2021, from 73.2 to 71.4 years, bringing us back to levels seen in 2012. HALE also experienced a 1.5-year decline, going from 63.4 to 61.9 years.
Globally, this drop was not consistent. The worst effects were seen in the Americas and Southeast Asia, where there was a 2.5-year decrease in HALE and a three-year drop in life expectancy. As opposed to this, the Western Pacific Region experienced little effects, with HALE and life expectancy falling by less than 0.2 and 0.1 years, respectively.
The WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, highlighted the brittleness of advancements in global health, saying that the COVID-19 epidemic “erased a decade of gains in life expectancy in just two years.” This demonstrates how crucial the new Pandemic Agreement is to bolster global health security and safeguarding long-term health investments.”