Sotheincreaseof12years in maximumlifeexpectancy during the 20thcenturywasjustone-third as large as the increase in averagelife expectancy during the period (36 years).
Although seven out of 10 early 50-somethings quizzed for the survey defined themselves as middle-aged, the average age at which the period of life was perceived to start was 54 years and 347 days old.
His key damning metric: Between 1981 and 2009, average Chinese life expectancy grew by only five years, while in nations that started the period with a similar statistic (68 years) and had slower economic growth (including South Korea and Malaysia), the average rose by 7-14 years.