A new report reveals the world’s population is living six years longer than just two decades ago.
Global life expectancy rose five point eight years in men and six point six years in women from 1990 to 2013.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet, showed a major decrease in deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease in high-income countries; in other countries, deaths from diarrhea and neonatal complications were also down.
That contributed to the decline, Time reports, as did the fact that medical funding for fighting infectious diseases has increased dramatically since 1990.
It’s not all good news, though. HIV/AIDS is now one of the top 10 causes of premature death, rising from 2.07 million deaths in 1990 to 2.63 million in 2013.
Because of the increase in HIV/AIDS deaths, southern sub-Saharan Africa is now the only region in the world to have seen a decline in life expectancy.
Agencies/Canadajournal
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