International Policy

World Health Organization: Development Propels Health Improvements (Summary)

Worldwide health has improved more in the past 50 years than in the preceding 5,000 years, according to a World Health Organization official. In its latest report, the WHO credits economic development, safer water and sanitation facilities, and improved national health facilities for the stunning advances in the health of people around the world.

Other factors cited include advances in the control of infectious diseases in childhood through immunizations and more effective therapies.

  • Average global life expectancy today is 66 years -- and is projected to rise to 73 years by 2025.

  • No country will have an average life expectancy of less than 50 years by 2025 -- even though life expectancy in 18 countries, mostly in Africa, was under age 50 last year.

  • The mortality rate for children under five was 210 per 1,000 in 1955 -- dropping to 78 per 1,000 in 1995, and forecast to drop again to 37 per 1,000 by 2025.

  • Global population, which was 2.8 billion in 1955, now stands at 5.8 billion -- and is expected to hit 8 billion in 2025.

Infectious diseases were the leading cause of death in 1997, killing 55.2 million people.

Source: Anita Manning, "World Health Picture Keeps Getting Brighter," USA Today, May 11, 1998.

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