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5 Facts About Life Expectancy in Georgia 

Life Expectancy in Georgia 

Georgia, located between Western Asia and Eastern Europe, has made significant progress over the past several decades when it comes to the life expectancy of its nearly 4 million citizens. Since around the 1990s, the country has experienced many health reforms that helped to improve the general health of its population as well as lower maternal and infant mortality rates. However, despite these improvements, Georgia still faces multiple health-related challenges that pose a threat to the life expectancy of its citizens. Listed below are five facts about life expectancy in Georgia.

5 Facts About Life Expectancy in Georgia

  1. According to a survey carried out by the United Nations in 2012, the average lifespan for Georgian women stood at 79 years, while the average life span for men was lower, at around 70 years. The average lifespan in Georgia is expected to increase to 80.6 years for women and 74.1 years for men by 2035. 
  2. As of 2019, the life expectancy in Georgia at birth is approximately 73.66 years. This marks a percentage increase of approximately 20 percent over 69 years. Back in 1950, the U.N. estimated that the life expectancy in Georgia at birth was less than 60 years in total. 
  3. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the probability of death for people between ages 15 and 60 stands at 238 for males and 83 for females. The probability of children dying before the age of 5 per 1,000 births was around 11 in 2017.
  4. Georgia developed the Maternal and Newborn Health Strategy, as well as a short term action plan in 2017 to provide direction and guidance in improving maternal and newborn health. According to UNICEF, the three-year initiative “envisages that by 2030, there will be no preventable deaths of mothers and newborns or stillbirths, every child will be a wanted child, and every unwanted pregnancy will be prevented through appropriate education and full access for all to high quality integrated services.”
  5. In 2010, the leading causes of premature death in Georgia were cardiovascular and circulatory diseases, including ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. It was reported that in 2010, the three most prominent risk factors for the disease burdened people in Georgia were related to diet, high blood pressure and tobacco smoking. It was also reported that the leading risk factors for children who were younger than 5 and people between ages 15 to 49 were suboptimal breastfeeding and the aforementioned dietary risks.

As a whole, life expectancy in Georgia has improved significantly compared to the mid 20th century. With that being said, there is no denying that there is still work that needs to be done in a number of areas including maternal health. Hopefully, with strong investments from the government, life expectancy in Georgia will continue its upward trajectory. 

– Adam Abuelheiga
Photo: Flickr

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Coal Power Linked to Deaths in Europe

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The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), a European non-profit, recently published a report entitled “The Unpaid Health Bill,” which elucidated the costs that coal-fire plants impart on citizens’ health. The study concluded that burning coal contributes to over $50 billion in lost resources annually, partially due to the over four million sick days required as a result of coal-fire plants. Even more shockingly, there are over 18,000 premature European deaths each year which can be attributed to this dirty form of energy.

HEAL’s Executive Director, Genon Jensen, urged that these findings “be taken into account when determining energy policy,” especially in consideration of the increasing levels of coal use in Europe. Her organization’s goals are to cease all production of coal-fire plants, and to completely end European use of coal by 2040.

Part of the reason alternative, cleaner energy sources seem so expensive when compared to conventional fossil fuels is because of an economic concept called “externalities,” which are essentially “side effects.” The costs associated with using coal go far beyond extracting the material and burning it; there are negative externalities such as the pollution of the atmosphere, which affects everyone breathing the air. If coal companies were forced to pay for all the costs of their business, they would be charged for the carbon they put into the air, in order to offset the costs everyone else has to bear. The positive externalities of renewable energy sources, like a reduction in medical costs and benefits to wildlife, can often go unrewarded. If governments recognized the amount they could save by switching to clean energy, and used part of those savings to subsidize the installation of such energy sources, then there could be an economically feasible plan for abandoning fossil fuels forever.

– Jake Simon

Source: DW