Visual of the Day - Life Expectancy

Click on the image to zoom in. The image comes from a recent report on developed nations - the OECD report Society at a Glance 2009. White bars indicate life expectancy in 1960, blue bars indicate life expectancy in 2006.

This particular image shows several things that interest me:

1. The drastic improvement in life expectancy over the last 50 years across the board. (What/who should we thank for this?)
   
2. The astounding improvement in life expectancy in Korea, Mexico, and Turkey. (what causal factors do these countries have in common?)
   

• Korea: people live 28.7 years longer, or 53% longer now than in 1960!!!
• Turkey: people live 23.7 years longer, or 47% longer now than in 1960!
• Mexico: People live 18.9 years longer, or 32% longer now than in 1960!
  

3. Life expectancy for women continues to exceed life expectancy for men by a significant margin. (Talk about inequality!)

The report is jammed-full of interesting statistics; for example, Americans spend less time eating (74 minutes per day) and sleeping (518 minutes per day) than do the French (135 minutes and 530 minutes respectively).