Datablog: Japan falls down female life expectancy rankings after tsunami

Japan has slipped from the top of global female life expectancy rankings for the first time in over a quarter of a century following the March 2011 tsunami. The average lifespan of Japanese women fell by 0.4 years in 2011
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A ship brought in by the tsunami
A ship brought in by the Japanese tsunami of 11 March 2011 Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/REUTERS

The March 2011 tsunami has played a major role in knocking Japan of the top of global female life expectancy rankings for the first time in 26 years.

Life expectancy at birth for Japanese women fell by 0.4 years - almost five months - in 2011, according to figures provided by the country's health and labour ministry.

Japanese women had an average lifespan of 86.3 years in 2010, but the loss of life attributed to the disaster - particularly among the elderly - played a significant part in bringing life expectancy at birth down to 85.9.

Women in Hong Kong now have the longest life expectancy in the world, living an average of 86.7 years.

Justin McCurry, the Guardian's Tokyo correspondent, has more on the story here. He writes:

The large number of elderly victims was a defining characteristic of the disaster in March 2011, which killed almost 16,000 people and left about 3,000 unaccounted for. National police agency statistics show that more than 56% of those who died were aged 65 or older, and almost three-quarters of those missing were over 60.

Craig Bloodworth, from The Information Lab, has used data from the UN Demographic Yearbook 2009-10 and self-reported statistics from selected countries to visualise male and female life expectancy across the globe.

Filter the data by gender using the menu on the right, or find out how countries compare to a specific nation using the tool to the left.

Browse the raw figures below. What can you do with this data?

Data summary

Life expectancy at birth for selected countries

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Region
Country
Period
Male
Female
Population (10,000s)

Source: UN Demographic Yearbook 2009/10 and self-reporting by countries
*Statistic provided by government concerned
ASIA Japan 2011* 79.44 85.9 12,534
AFRICA Algeria 2008 74.9 76.6 3,598
AFRICA Egypt 2010 68.2 70.9 7,873
AFRICA South Africa 2009 53.5 57.2 4,999
AFRICA Tunisia 2010* 72.7 76.6 1,055
AFRICA Canada 2007-2009* 78.8 83.3 3,411
AFRICA Costa Rica 2010 76.8 81.8 456
AFRICA Cuba 2005-2007 76 80 1,124
NORTH AMERICA Mexico 2010* 73.1 77.8 10,755
NORTH AMERICA United States 2010* 76.2 81.1 30,905
NORTH AMERICA Argentina 2006-2010 72.5 80 4,052
NORTH AMERICA Brazil 2010* 69.73 77.32 19,325
SOUTH AMERICA Chile 2010 75.8 81.2 1,709
SOUTH AMERICA Colombia 2005-2010 70.7 77.5 4,551
SOUTH AMERICA Peru 2000-2005 69 74.3 2,946
SOUTH AMERICA Bangladesh 2007 65.4 67.9 14,660
SOUTH AMERICA China 2000* 69.63 73.33 133,474
SOUTH AMERICA Cyprus 2006-2007 78.3 81.9 80
SOUTH AMERICA India 2002-2006 62.6 64.2 118,211
SOUTH AMERICA Iran 2006 71.1 73.1 7,434
ASIA Israel 2010* 79.7 83.4 763
ASIA Malaysia 2010* 71.9 77 2,825
ASIA Pakistan 2007 63.6 67.6 16,515
ASIA Qatar 2008 77.9 78.1 171
ASIA Republic of Korea 2010* 77.2 84.1 4,888
ASIA Singapore 2011* 79.6 84.3 508
ASIA Thailand 2010* 69.6 76.9 6,731
ASIA Turkey 2009 71.5 76.1 7,270
ASIA Austria 2011* 78.11 83.45 839
ASIA Belgium 2009* 77.3 82.8 1,088
ASIA Czech Republic 2011* 74.69 80.74 1,052
ASIA Denmark 2010-2011* 77.3 81.62 555
ASIA Finland 2011* 77.2 83.5 534
ASIA France 2011* 78.2 84.8 6,297
ASIA Germany 2008-2010* 77.51 82.59 8,178
ASIA Greece 2009 77.7 82.8 1,128
ASIA Iceland 2011* 79.9 83.6 32
EUROPE Italy 2011* 79.4 84.5 6,048
EUROPE Netherlands 2011* 79 82.7 1,662
EUROPE Norway 2011* 79 83.45 489
EUROPE Poland 2011* 72.4 80.9 3,818
EUROPE Russian Federation 2009 62.8 74.7 14,294
EUROPE Spain 2010* 78.94 84.91 4,607
EUROPE Sweden 2011* 79.81 83.7 938
EUROPE Switzerland 2010* 80.2 84.6 783
EUROPE Ukraine 2007-2008 62.5 74.3 4,596
EUROPE United Kingdom 2008-2010* 78.2 82.27 6,222
OCEANIA Australia 2008-2010* 79.5 84 2,234
OCEANIA New Zealand 2008-2010* 78.8 82.7 437

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