I compared life expectancy at birth between the United States and China using World Bank data (starting from 2010).
In 2010, the US had a clear lead of about 3 years over China. Over time, China steadily improved while the US grew more slowly and saw a temporary decline during the COVID-19 period, where life expectancy dropped noticeably.
China was largely not impacted in the same way and continued its gradual upward trend.
By 2024, the gap has narrowed to around 1 year, making the two countries much closer than they were in 2010.
Source: World Bank Data
Chart: Livegap Charts
by omar_sedki
26 Comments
So covid had no change in China?
If there ever was a graph with an elephant in the room, it’s this one.
We all just going to go along with this…yeah? 👀
76 vs 79 in 2010 ist already pretty much caught up. I don’t like this kind of representation, it feels misleading
The idea that China, as the virus’s original source, was not affected by COVID-19 simply does not exists. This curve is a state-sponsored lie.
Seeing as how ours has been dropping in recent years, they’ll likely surpass us soon.
Not looking to argue OP, I’m just genuinely curious, do you believe the Chinese graph is accurate, or are you using it as it’s the only source that reports the numbers you’re looking to compare?
With a difference of 0.87 years I feel like we’re splitting hairs. Does that one year on avarage really represents something practical or meaningfull?
If the Chinese quit smoking, they will pass the United States in life expectancy.
Trick is to let all of your vulnerable folks die off to really give yourself a rocket boost to get up to 80 in the years after
Tbf, it’s not THAT hard. This is the US.
Chinese graph isn’t accurate since they hid millions of deaths during the COVID pandemic.
Because we honestly always trust data coming from the CCP
I always thought life expectancy was based on the birth year and not the death year. Otherwise the metric is just “average age at death”
There is no covid in Ba-Sing-Se.
Do you think anyone with even the slightest color-blindness will find this beautiful?
It always amuses me how Americans see China employing strict lockdowns, forced vaccinations, forced masks, checkpoints at public places, contact tracing using their digital surveillance capabilities, and their conclusion is China must be having so much more death than they are reporting!
Probably the best evidence out there for how BS Chinese statistics are
When it comes to healthy life expextancy they are already ahead: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/gho-ghe-hale-healthy-life-expectancy-at-birth
No bad for an authocratic failed state. And China is also scoring well.
Tbh it’s not like the US really shines in regards of life expectancy.
not that the US is a high bar or smth…
the usa shouldnt be the benchmark when it comes to life expectancy though
Pretty pathetic to just assume it’s China lying.
Plenty nations that took real measures against Covid, and consequently didn’t see a big dip in mortality rates.
USA was a mess. Very many needless deaths.
This post just shows the flaws of data science who rely on self reported data from authoritarian countries. Like please, open your eyes and look beyond your p values. To anyone who lives in China or lived there in the past, this is a joke. If I cherry pick the wealthiest neighborhoods in the US and paint a graph it would top any countries in the world.
Remember : [https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/22/china/china-covid-deaths-crematorium-intl-hnk-mic](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/22/china/china-covid-deaths-crematorium-intl-hnk-mic)