Indian women are expected to outlive men: Economic Survey

Indian women are expected to outlive men by a couple of years, as per the Economic Survey 2021-22.

According to the Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday, the report on 'Sample Registration based System (SRS) based 'Abridged Life Tables 2014-18' provides estimates of average longevity at various age groups and estimates of expectation of life at birth for India are available for 2014-18.

Females are expected to live longer (70.7 years) compared to males (68.2 years), it said.

In 2014-18 when compared to 2013-17, females are expected to live longer in most states/UTs both across the rural and urban areas, except for Bihar and Jharkhand.

The life expectancy at birth in India was 69.4 years for the period 2014-18, increasing by 0.4 years from 2013-17.

It varies widely across states; ranging from the lowest of 65.2 years in Chhattisgarh to the highest at 75.3 years in Kerala and Delhi.

The life expectancy is higher in urban areas (72.6 years) than in rural areas (68.0 years). Increase from 2013-17 is higher for rural (of 0.3 years) than increase in urban areas (0.2 years), the Survey said.

The gap between the rural and urban life expectancy has also narrowed down significantly from 1970-75 to 2014-18.

Given the increasing life expectancy in the country, the question that pops up is the rationale for the life insurers to increase their premium rates.