Singapore takes the title of being the world’s 6th Blue Zone

Photograph: Kirill Petropavlov/Unsplash

We are supposedly going to live longer

Written by Mingli Seet

Wednesday 20 September 2023

Singapore has just been named the 6th Blue Zone in the world. This means that Singapore is regarded as one of the cities with the highest life expectancy across the globe.

Singapore was added to the list in August by Dan Buettner, an American National Geographic Fellow and New York Times-bestselling author who has been studying the world's Blue Zones for over two decades. Blue Zones are essentially regions where their elderly inhabitants thrive with remarkable vitality and achieve exceptional longevity. Other Blue Zone countries are Okinawa (Japan), Ikaria (Greece), Sardinia (Italy) Nicoya (Costa Rica) and Loma Linda, (California).

Singapore boasts one of the world's highest life expectancies. According to the Singapore Department of Statistics in 2022, the average life expectancy stands at 80 years for males and 85 years for females. This represents a substantial improvement from the year 1980 when the average life expectancy for Singaporeans was 72 years. The United Nations anticipates that by 2023, the average life expectancy in Singapore will further increase to 84 years.

It is said that the notable increase in life expectancy in Singapore can be attributed to several factors, including the expansion and advancement of the country's healthcare system, as well as improved living conditions encompassing better housing and nutrition. These factors have collectively contributed to the significant improvement in the overall health and well-being of the population, leading to longer and healthier lives for its residents.

[This (chart below)is Singapore's crude death rate from 1960 - 2021. In 1960, the death rate was about 6.2 per 1000 population. This dropped steadily to about 4.3 in 2009. Then it started to rise. This is not because of any deterioration of our healthcare, but simply because, for as long as we were enhancing healthcare, death was "postponed" for people who would have died 100 years ago. So, instead of dying at 50, 60 or 70, Singaporeans, with better healthcare, could live longer to 60, 70, 80 and even 90, and beyond.

BUT... medical science and modern healthcare can only do so much. As our population ages, death is a greater probability. So from 2009, our crude death rate started to rise slowly. Until 2019, when the death rate was 5 per 1000. Then it shot up. Because of Covid. 

Singapore's Death rate per 1000 population

Another measure of Singaporean's longevity is how many Centenarians there are in Singapore. In June 2010, there were 700. In June 2020, it doubled to 1500. ]