People around the world are living longer, but many are not spending those extra years in good health. The World Health Organization, also called WHO, said that the average global life expectancy was 73.3 years in 2023, almost the same as before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. However, the number of years people live without serious illness or disability, which is called healthy life expectancy, reached only 62.8 years, and has not fully recovered to the earlier level.

The main reason for this is that more people are now dying from long-term diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and dementia, instead of infectious diseases. Noncommunicable diseases like these caused 74% of all deaths worldwide in 2023. For example, heart disease was the leading cause, and global deaths from dementia have tripled since 2000.

Because of this, the most important result is that health systems around the world now need to focus not only on helping people live longer, but also on keeping them healthy as they age. This includes more work to stop chronic diseases and help people stay well in both body and mind.