Life Expectancy in Iran Sharply Increased in Past 4 Decades

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Harirchi said before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, life expectancy in Iran was 54 years and the figure was even lower in the 1960s standing between 45 and 50 years.

“Today, I proudly announce that our life expectancy is relatively high mainly due to the improvement in the country’s economic and social infrastructure as well as measures adopted by the Iranian governments in the health section since the victory of Revolution,” he added.

According to a Farsi report by Sepid newspaper, the spokesman noted that “an interesting point about the figure is that the ideal figure of life expectancy in the world is 65 years.”

He added this means that Iranians enjoy a relatively longer lifetime compared with many other nations in the world. “In another word, our people can put more time into the development and progress of our country.”

Harirchi said life expectancy is highly important in make decisions on people’s retirement age and leisure time.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the spokesman said over the past decades, Iran ranked between 100 and 110 in terms of life expectancy but the grade has now promoted to 63.

He said one of the most significant goals of health section is decreasing premature deaths, adding till recent years, Iran defined any death under 50 as a premature death.

“Before the 1990s, over 80 percent of deaths in Iran occurred under 70 and only from 10 to 20 percent of the Iranians lived more than 70 years.”

“But today with the economic, social and health progresses made in Iran, 51 percent of women and 43 percent of men live more than 70 years.”

Harirchi also said out of the 360,000 people who died in Iran in 2016, 219,000 were men and 141,000 were women.

“Meanwhile, 193,000 deaths or about 53 percent of the whole deaths in Iran took place under the age of 70 with 124,000 deaths for men and 69,000 for women under 70. This means that we should do our best to decrease premature deaths before 70.”

Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of their birth, their current age and other demographic factors including gender.