West Bank and Gaza Residents Experience Among the Longest Life Spans in the Middle East

By Published On: November 30, 2012

longevity.jpg

The intensive media coverage of the West Bank and Gaza creates the impression that the Palestinians experience unusually harsh levels of deprivation. Data collected by the United Nations has consistently shown for many years that the Palestinians, who benefit from enormous amounts of foreign aid as well as benefiting from close access to Israeli health services, are healthier and live longer than most of the people in the Middle East. A chart published by London’s Daily Mail citing the CIA World Factbook (which uses UN data) shows the longevity rankings of different states and entities.

The West Bank at #90 ranks near the top of the Middle East region, ahead of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and most of the North African states. Even Gaza at #110, routinely portrayed in the media as suffering deprivation due to Israeli measures, experiences greater longevity at 74.16 years than neighboring Egypt at 72.93 years. Interestingly, most of these states rank well ahead of Russia and other former East bloc states.

Palestinians in the West Bank have greater longevity (and other favorable health metrics) than the majority of the world’s population and yet have been among the largest recipients of humanitarian aid in the world for two decades.

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