Indians Living Longer Now Than A Decade Ago

Bangalore: An average Indian lived 4.6 years longer in 2008 in comparison to 10 years ago. And an average Indian woman lived three years more compared to her male counterpart in 2008, reported Kounteya Sinha for TNN. According to the latest life expectancy data the life expectancy of rural Indians increased by 2.2 years between 2002 and 2008 while, the life expectancy of an urban Indian was up by only 1.2 years.

It was seen that between 2000 and 2004, the overall life expectancy of an average Indian was 63.9 years, while between 2006 and 2010, it increased to 66.1 years. In men, the life expectancy increased from 62.8 years in 2000-04 to 64.6 years in 2006-10. Among women, it increased from 65.2 years to 67.7 years in the same time frame.

The urban female was noted to have lived 4.9 years longer than a rural female and 7.9 years longer than a rural male.

Kerala's rural female had the highest life expectancy at birth across all categories at 77.2 years. While, contrastingly the life expectancy at birth was lowest at below 60 years for a rural male in Madhya Pradesh. Rural males lived longest in Kerala at 71.2 years, 7.7 years longer than the average rural Indian male.

In case of urban males, Himachal Pradesh took the top spot with an average man living till 72.6 years at 4.6 years longer than an average urban Indian male.  An urban female was living longest in Kerala at 76.4 years, which was five years longer than an average urban Indian female.