The average life expectancy in Bangladesh has gone up by around three years, from 67.2 years in 2009 to 70.4 years in 2013, according to a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics study.
Released yesterday, the study, on Sample Vital Registration System, revealed that the female population is living longer than the males, as life expectancy of females has increased from 68.7 years to 71.2 years, whereas for males it has increased from 66.1 years to 68.8 years.
The World Health Organisation defines life expectancy as the average number of years a person is expected to live on the basis of the current mortality rates and prevalent healthcare facilities in a population.
In 1980, the average life expectancy in Bangladesh was around 48 years in 1980, which steadily climbed to around 60 years in 1990, 65 in 2000 and 67.7 in 2010.
“Increasing access to healthcare facility, immunisation, nutrition and overall economic development are the prime reason for increased life expectancy,” said Dr Md Munirul Islam, a scientist with the Centre for Nutrition and Food Security at the ICDDRB.
However, nutrition supply has yet to make a breakthrough as its rate of improvement is much slower than expected, he said.
The overall health indicators have also shown significant improvement across the country over the past few years. Infant mortality ratio has come down to 31 per 1,000 live births in 2013 from 39 in 2009.
Maternal mortality ratio has also declined to 1.97 per 1,000 live births in 2013 from 2.59 in 2009, according to the study, the under-five child mortality rate dropped to 41 per 1,000 live births in 2013 from 50 per 1,000 live births in 2009.