{"id":11933,"date":"2019-10-17T07:45:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T07:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=11933"},"modified":"2019-10-16T20:37:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T20:37:25","slug":"autocomplete-question-why-is-russian-life-expectancy-so-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/autocomplete-question-why-is-russian-life-expectancy-so-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Autocomplete Question: “Why Is Russian Life Expectancy So Low?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are continuing our Autocomplete Questions<\/a> series \u2014 these are questions that pop up in your search bar when you start typing. This time, I put in “Why is Russian…” and one of the questions read “Why is Russian life expectancy so low?” Let’s tackle this question in this post.<\/p>\n

\"elderly

Photo by Matthew Bennett<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Some Statistics<\/h2>\n

First, how low is <\/em>life expectancy in Russia? (A terminology note: technically, life expectancy is “\u043e\u0436\u0438\u0434\u0430\u0301\u0435\u043c\u0430\u044f \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0434\u043e\u043b\u0436\u0438\u0301\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c \u0436\u0438\u0301\u0437\u043d\u0438<\/strong>,” although, in everyday speech, people will simply say “\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0434\u043e\u043b\u0436\u0438\u0301\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c \u0436\u0438\u0301\u0437\u043d\u0438<\/strong>“\u2014”life span.” These are technically different things, but they are used interchangeably in non-expert speech.) In 2018, life expectancy was 68 years for men (\u0434\u043b\u044f \u043c\u0443\u0436\u0447\u0438\u0301\u043d<\/strong>), and 78 years for women (\u0434\u043b\u044f \u0436\u0435\u0301\u043d\u0449\u0438\u043d<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

This still may sound low compared to other counties. At the same time, consider that, according to the World Health Organization<\/a> (\u0412\u0441\u0435\u043c\u0438\u0301\u0440\u043d\u0430\u044f \u043e\u0440\u0433\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0437\u0430\u0301\u0446\u0438\u044f \u0437\u0434\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043e\u043e\u0445\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0435\u0301\u043d\u0438\u044f, \u0412\u041e\u0417<\/strong>), life expectancy at birth fell more than 7 years between the years 1990 and 1994 and reached the low point of 57 years for men and 71 years for women. That was also one of the largest gaps between the genders.<\/p>\n

\"old

Photo by Cristina Gottardi<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Causes of Mortality<\/h2>\n

So why was <\/em>life expectancy so low in the 1990s? Researchers, such as those who worked on the WHO report, point to several reasons:<\/p>\n