[Statistics] Life expectancy of Koreans is 82.1 years

The remaining life of 65-year-old Korean men is reportedly 18.2 years, which exceeds the OECD’s average for the first time.

According to the “2015 Life Table” released by Statistics Korea on Friday, the life expectancy for 2015 newborns increased by 0.3 years year-on-year to 82.1 years. When broken down by gender, baby girls (85.2 years) showed 6.2 years longer life expectancy than baby boys (79 years).

When compared with the OECD average, Korean men were expected to live 1.1 years and 1.9 years longer for female than their global counterparts, respectively. Among the 35 OECD member nations, Korea was ranked 12th in terms of life expectancy, with 18th for males and 7th for females.

Most age brackets also saw increases in life expectancies in both gender groups. In particular, life expectancy of Korean men who were 65-year-old in 2015 first was 18.2 years, exceeding the OECD average of 17.9 years, and that of 65-year-old Korean women was 22.4 years.

Min-Ki Shin minki@donga.com