The funny things I read. I was comparing life expectancy in Australia with the UK and a few other countries on this Australian Govt. page.

Our son was born in Australia, so according to this table, by emigrating we have gifted him an extra two years of life compared with if he’d been born in the UK. He can expect to live to 77.9 years in Australia compared to 75.8 in the UK.

He also gains 2 years of healthy life in Australia. He can expect to be healthy for 70.9 years in Australia compared with 69.1 years in the UK.

Why? My guess is it comes down to 3 main reasons:

1. Australians eat a better diet.
2. Australians get out and about more.
3. In our experience, a much greater proportion of Australians are more upbeat about lives. I’m sure being miserable takes at least a few months off your life expectancy.

My honest guess is that it’s probably a better diet that leads to most of Australia’s gain.