GDP and Life Expectancy
An increase in GDP is often associated with an improvement in life quality and that is why GDP is so central in the political discourse. GDP is an acronym for gross domestic product and it essentially refers to the aggregate wealth of a country. Life quality is a concept hard to measure in quantitative terms. There are many factors contributing to a so-called “good life”. For the purposes of this post I will measure life quality in terms of life expectancy, an indicator often used to replace the more subjective concept of life quality. I will investigate the joint development of GDP and life expectancy in six countries and check the extend to which they correlate. The data comes from the World Health Organization and the World Bank.
Has life expectancy increased over time in the six nations?
According to the graph, life expectancy has been rising in all countries from 2000 to 2015. Zimbabwe is significantly different from the other five countries. In 2000, the life expectancy was slightly above 45, a very low number compared to the next lowest life expectancy of around 72 years. The Zimbabwe curve goes a bit downward until 2004, reaching an expectancy of less than 45. However afterwards it picks up again and increases at a higher rate until at 2014 it reaches approximately 61 years — a great imporvement, but it still lags behind the other countries.
Has GDP increased over time in the six nations?
It seems that GDP did not really change in Mexico, Chille and Zimbabwe, with the latter two having an alomst identical GDP. Mexico has a slightly higher domestic product. Germany’s GDP did not grow a lot — it seems to be increasing at a low rate and with fluctuations. China and the US on the other hand grew significantly. The US has a considerably larger GDP than China, though the latter one seems to be growing exponentially and with a higher rate than the US.
Is there a correlation between GDP and life expectancy of a country?
In all of the cases there is an increase of the life expectancy. In five out of the six countries, this rise in life expectancy is accompanied by an increase in GDP, albeit in differing rates. Zimbabwe on the other hand exhibits a significant increase in life expectancy while GDP stays the same.
What is the average life expectancy in these nations?
Once again, the five countries do not differ significantly. But Zimbabwe has a significantly lower average life expectancy and also a larger standard deviation.
What is the distribution of that life expectancy?
The life expectancy in Zimbabwe is very widely distributed, with the minimum and maximum diverging by approximately 30 years. The other countries’ life expectancy is more compactly distributed, with a clear mode (or two) and the distance between the minimum and maximum does not exceed 10 years.
Conclusion
It is very clear from the graphs that Zimbabwe has a significantly lower life expectancy than the other countries, though it has been rising. Interestingly, Zimbabwe appears to have a stable GDP in the period 2000 to 2015, in contrast to the other countries. However, even though there seems to be a correlation between GDP and life expectancy in the other countries, GDP alone is clearly not such a significant factor. This is made obvious by the fact that Zimbabwe continues to increase its life expectancy even though its GDP remains unchanged. Secondly, Chile has a significantly lower GDP than China but a higher life expectancy. Therefore, it is clear that a country’s GDP is not very efficient in predicting that country’s life expectancy. Further investigation would be necessary to understand the factors contributing to each country’s life expectancy. Such factors could include the state of the healthcare system, the environment, the population size etc.
