SEOUL, Aug. 24 (UPI) — Life expectancy for South Korean men is lower than for women, according to OECD health data for 2015 – and the culprit may be a higher rate of smoking.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released the latest statistics in a report that included data on life expectancy for its 34 member countries, The Korea Herald reported.
South Korea and France tied in fifth place in terms of the life expectancy gap between men and women. On average, South Korean men lived to be 78.5 years of age, 6.6 years less than women at 85.1 years. South Korean women’s life expectancy ranked fifth among OECD countries, while that of men ranked 20th – a significant gap in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Countries that had a greater gender disparity in life expectancy were Estonia at 8.9 years, Poland at 8.2 years, Slovakia at 7.2 years and Hungary at 6.9 years. Taken together, South Korean men and women lived an average of 81.8 years, 1.4 years above the OECD average of 80.4 years.
The United States, Germany and Australia had a gender-based life expectancy gap of less than five years, and the cause may be the lower smoking rates among men in these countries, according to the OECD.
By contrast, 36 percent of South Korean men smoked daily in 2013, the third-highest rate among member countries, but South Korean women smoked at a significantly lower rate of 4.3 percent – which also is the lowest in the OECD bloc.
The highest rate of smoking occurred among Greek men, at 44 percent, followed by men in neighboring Turkey at 37.3 percent.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported the country with the highest life expectancy was Japan, where women live on average to be 86.6 years of age, followed by Spain at 86.1, France at 85.6 and Italy at 85.2.
