How old is the world’s oldest person?

•Edna was born on April 20, 1893

•She lives in Indiana, USA.

•Her age has been verified.

How old is this lady? Where does she live?

What about Florrie Baldwin…Britain’s oldest person?

• Florrie was born in March 1896.

• She has five great-great grandchildren

• She lives in Leeds, and even remembers when Queen Victoria visited the city! © Image copyright Yorkshire Evening Post

Why have they lived so long?

What do you notice about these people?

Who wants to live forever? - Long life geography

This section explores how life expectancy varies between different countries and how

variations in life expectancy also occur according to income, occupation and gender.

Key questions

• How does life expectancy vary between different countries?

• How does life expectancy vary between different regions of the UK?

• How do variations in life expectancy occur according to income, occupation and gender?

How long will you live?!

Mrs Bennett will live to 92

Life expectancy

Examples of exam questions:•Describe the pattern shown on the map (4)•Explain why there is this pattern (4)

Why does life expectancy vary between different countries?

• Life expectancy is a human development indicator and is a common measure of a country's level of development. Quite simply a short life expectancy is linked to the country being poorer and therefore having fewer health facilities, poorer diets, limited access to education (to teach about the need for a healthy diet, clean water etc), and generally a lower standard of living. Life expectancy can also fall as a result of factors such as famine, war and disease. Many countries with low life expectancy also have high infant mortality (the number of children per 1,000 who die before the age of five years), and this figure will bring down the average. Countries with high life expectancy are usually higher income countries with access to clean water and sanitation, established (and sometimes free) healthcare facilities and a generally higher standard of living.

• HIV and AIDS have taken their toll in Africa, Asia and even South America, reducing life expectancy in 34 different countries (26 of them in Africa). According to UN statistics for the period 2005 - 2010, Africa is home to the world's lowest life expectancies with Swaziland (36.9 years), Mozambique (42.1 years) and Zambia (42.4 years) at the bottom of the list.

In MEDCs what factors affect how long we live?

• Complete the sheet entitled….

‘Who wants to live forever?’

Life Expectancy at age 65 (UK)

What patterns can you

see?

This graph is from the National Statistics website.

Life Expectancy (UK), Gender split.Would you

rather be male or female?

Why?

Where would you rather live? Why?

This table is from the National Statistics website.

Why do women live longer?

• Biology (are there differences in how our bodies work?)

• Work (do male occupations involve greater risk and danger?)

• Lifestyle (are men exposed to greater risk, perhaps through sports or other leisure pursuits?)

What does the geography of long life look like?

Men and women, north and south: a tale of different lives in the UK

A good innings?...it depends

• The average life expectancy of the total population in the UK stands at : 78.85 years

• But when we split up the findings we see that…

• Male LE: 76.37 years • Female LE: 81.46 years (2008 est.) (CIA World Factbook)

Places that live on and places that live less

Regional maps of Life Expectancy: Source http://www.pm.gov.uk/files/pdf/health%20inequality%20map.pdf

The Queen vs. Wayne Rooney’s neighbourhood: How long might they live?

• In the top-ranked local authority Kensington and Chelsea men live to 80.8 years, and women a further five years.

• Is it as simple as a north south divide?

• Certainly the south and the east have on average higher life expectancies, but note the local anomalies in inner east London for example.

• Of the lowest 10 local authorities, seven were in Scotland. The others were Manchester, Blackpool and Liverpool.

• Glasgow City has the worst life expectancy, 72.9 years leading to an undesired label of life expectancy the 'Scottish effect'

What might be the impacts of LE being unevenly distributed around the UK?Is it only biology that explains the differences in male and female LE?

The ‘Scottish Effect’

• Glasgow suffers from double whammy of negative factors that contribute to its position in life expectancy in the UK.

• High proportion of manual working class labour and unemployment• Lifestyle couples as the other significant contribution to the

‘Scottish Effect’, as the main killer diseases are lung cancer and heart disease, caused by smoking and lack of exercise.

The river Clyde in Glasgow © Copyright Gordon McKinlay and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.

• Your gender, where you live and the lifestyle you adopt all play a part in life expectancy in the UK.

• Geographies of health, economy and social activity help us to understand the variations at a national and local scale.

• So when learning about life expectancy we need to consider place, history and economic conditions as well.

• This information helps governments ensure their policy is targeted; as well as that of NGOs and charities.

The geography of long life…