Notes

Notes on methodology and terms/concepts used on the Global AgeWatch website.

Life expectancy 

Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining to a person at a particular age based on a given set of age-specific death rates. Life expectancy is calculated using a mathematical tool called a "life table".

The World Health Organization (WHO) regularly updates its life tables for Member States, to take account of new data on levels of child and adult mortality and revises its series of life tables for each Member State for years starting from 1990.

These life tables also provide estimates of total deaths by age and sex that underpin WHO mortality and cause of death analyses. More on the methodology: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/LT_method.pdf

Life expectancy at birth

This reflects the overall mortality level of a population. It summarises the mortality pattern that prevails across all age groups in a given year. Life expectancy at birth is a good measure of public health and, a core component to measure human development.

The barometer on the country pages shows the life expectancy at birth of each country in relation to Sierra Leone, the country with the lowest figure (dark red) and Japan, the country with the highest figures (green).

The "current norm" is here used as a term refer to the current average life expectancy at birth in Japan, a standard that one might argue should be reached by all countries. In 2010-15, the total average life expectancy at birth is 84 years in Japan.

For the rankings, please note that often there is only a very minor margin to the next country as shown in the full database.

Life expectancy at 60

This is the average number of years that a person at that age can be expected to live, assuming that age-specific mortality levels remain constant.

This is a better estimate of survival within the adult life course than life expectancy at birth, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. Life expectancy at birth is here hugely influenced by high levels of infant mortality and therefore tells us little about the survival of adults.

The barometer shows the life expectancy at 60 of each country in relation to Sierra Leone, the country with the lowest figure (dark red) and Japan, the country with the highest figure (green).

For the rankings, please note that often there is only a very minor margin to the next country as shown in the full database.

Healthy life expectancy (HALE)

Also called "disability-adjusted life expectancy", HALE represents the average number of years that a person can expect to live in "full health" by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.

Healthy life expectancy is a modification of the conventional life expectancy taking into account the time lived with disability. It adjusts the expectation of years of life for the loss on account of disability, using explicit weights for different health states.

Healthy life expectancy can be increased by eliminating disease and/or injury throughout the life course and compressing disability to a shorter period at the end of life. The economic, social and cultural benefits of doing so are enormous.

Note that this data is only available for 176 countries and that in some cases there is more than one country shown with the same rank when the HALE at birth is the same.

Policies and ageing

The table on policies shows, if information is available, if policies and/or legislation on ageing exists in the respective country. This information provides insight into a country's response to population ageing.

To get a better understanding of this it is, however, essential to look at the implementation and evaluation of these. Very little evidence on resources allocated to implementation or on implementation and evaluation was found.

The following definitions to "policy" and "legislation" were applied:

Policy: a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organisation

Legislation: laws, considered collectively

National policies on ageing and/or older people are age-specific policy tools that generally call for mainstreaming ageing and the provisions made in these national plans on ageing into sectoral policy, such as health or social security policy.

The information was collected through extensive primary and secondary research conducted in preparation of the Ageing in the Twenty-First Century report and its preceding Overview of Available Policies and Legislation, Data and Research, and Institutional Arrangements Relating To Older Persons - Progress Since Madrid report published by UNFPA and HelpAge International in 2011.

Methods of evidence gathering included:

  • analysis of government responses to questionnaires;
  • publications and other materials issued by governments;
  • information provided by international organisations;
  • additional materials from non-government sources, including articles in academic journals, reports and presentations prepared by research institutes;
  • web searches;
  • personal communication and correspondence with experts.

Further details, including on the methodology, can be found in Overview of Available Policies and Legislation, Data and Research, and Institutional Arrangements Relating To Older Persons - Progress Since Madrid report published by UNFPA and HelpAge International in 2011.

The database on policies and legislation is a living document that will grow as more information becomes available. If you have additional information on any of the schemes listed, please email the Global AgeWatch team at HelpAge.

Social pensions

The information on social pensions is taken from HelpAge's social pensions database (www.pension-watch.net) which gathers information from a range of sources and draws on the knowledge of our worldwide team of social protection experts.

It has data on over 90 social pension schemes running across the globe in low-, middle- and high-income countries.

The database is a living document that will grow as more information is gathered. If you have additional information on any of the schemes listed, please email the PensionWatch team at HelpAge. 

Geographical targeting: A targeting method which uses geographical location to identify beneficiaries.
GDP per capita: Income per person in a population. Per capita income is often used to measure a country's standard of living.

Means test: A targeting method based on income that seeks to collect comprehensive information on household income and/or wealth and verifies the information collected against independent sources.

Pensions-testing: A targeting method which aims to exclude those already in receipt of a pension.

Social pension: A non-contributory cash transfer paid regularly to older people by government.

Targeting: The effort to focus resources among those most in need of them.