Healthiest Countries in the World

Sources: Bloomberg analysis of World Health Organization data; United Nations Population Division and the World Bank

Health Index analyzes both life expectancy and environmental factors. The 2019 edition of the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, ranks 169 economies according to the factors that contribute to overall health. This index classifies nations according to the variables that include life expectancy while imposing sanctions on risks such as tobacco consumption and obesity. It also considers environmental factors, including access to drinking water and sanitation.

According to the data obtained, four additional European nations were among the top 10 in 2019. Thus, Iceland (third place), Switzerland (fifth), Sweden (sixth) and Norway (ninth). Japan was the healthiest Asian nation, jumped three places from the 2017 survey to the fourth and replaced Singapore, which fell to the eighth. While Australia and Israel completed the top 10 in the seventh and tenth place.

Relevant data

It is necessary to mention that Bloomberg evaluated the health variables and the risks that go from the nature of the behavior to the environmental characteristics. Thus, the final index only included nations with at least 0.3 million inhabitants and sufficient data. In this way, 169 WHO states met the criteria to be included.

With the aforementioned parameters, we can talk about the obtained data. Thus, Spain shows the highest life expectancy at birth among the nations of the European Union and only extends to Japan and Switzerland worldwide. At least, as shown in the United Nations data. Being that Spain for the year 2040 is expected to have the highest life expectancy, in almost 86 years. Japan, Singapore, and Switzerland also follow, according to the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

In fact, according to the European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies 2018, in a review of Spain, there was a noticeable decrease in the last decade in cardiovascular diseases and cancer deaths. “Primary care is essentially provided by public providers, specialized family doctors and nurses, who provide preventive services to children, women and the elderly, and acute and chronic care”.

On the other hand, researchers say that eating habits can provide clues about the health levels enjoyed by Spain and Italy, since a”Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts, had a lower rate of cardiovascular events. greater than those assigned to a low-fat diet”.

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Source: Lee J Miller and Wei Lu | Bloomberg