Swiss Re is forecasting long-term mortality improvement trends for insurance. The company’s latest report, “The Future of life expectancy” shows that although, gains in human longevity have tapered off over the last decade, the next wave of improvements is on its way.
Life expectancy improvements typically come in waves following major medical breakthroughs or large-scale social trends according to history. In the twentieth century, pharmaceutical innovations which lowered blood pressure and cholesterol triggered a steep improvement in life expectancy. The global average life expectancy for a person born in 2020 is over 70 years, compared with only 55 years at the end of the 1950s.
