For most of the past hundred years, life expectancy has been steadily rising. While this has not been a trend that has continued in recent years, the dip seen since 2019 has not been felt by all. Indeed, research from the University of Oxford highlights how life expectancy among politicians has continued its upward trajectory.
“Our study is the largest to date to compare the mortality rate and life expectancy of politicians with those of the age and gender-matched general population,” the researchers explain. “The results show that the survival advantage of politicians today is very high compared to that observed in the first half of the 20th century.”
Life expectancy
The researchers explain that the dip in life expectancy has largely been caused by the pandemic but also by widening inequalities in our society. Indeed, they highlight how in England, those in the most deprived areas are expected to live 10 years less than those in the least deprived.
The researchers highlight how this has shone a light on whether certain high-status occupations are linked with better health. They attempt to explore the mortality rate of politicians and the populations they represent across 11 high-income countries.
The dataset covered over 57,500 politicians between 1945 and 2014, and each was analyzed according to their age, gender, and country with the equivalent section of their country’s population for the period of time they were in office. The researchers compared the number of deaths among the group of politicians each year with the number expected to die if their mortality matched that of the population as a whole.
A changing picture
The results show that for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries there was parity between the life expectancy of politicians and the countries they represented. This began to change as the 20th century progressed, however, although this gap was by no means consistent across countries.
For instance, Italian politicians are about 2.2 times less likely to die in the coming year than Italians generally, whereas this falls to just 1.2 times less likely for politicians in New Zealand. When put in terms of life expectancy gaps, this represents a whopping 7 years in the US.
The cause of this is less clear-cut. There is clearly an argument that because politicians typically earn more than the average person this is then reflected in their higher life expectancy, but the researchers believe that other factors are at play. Indeed, whereas income inequality began to change in the 1980s, life expectancy began to diverge in the 1940s.
As a result, they believe that lifestyle factors, such as diet, and differing standards of healthcare are likely to play a bigger role. It’s also possible that the political landscape has changed such that different types of people became politicians, which itself impacted the life expectancy trends. Nonetheless, they believe that the findings are important given the current focus on public health.
“Reducing health inequalities is high on the agenda of the UK Government and many other Governments,” they conclude. “A key challenge will be to find ways to raise the life-expectancy of the public to close gaps with elite groups such as politicians.”
