Life expectancy at birth was on average 80.6 years across OECD countries in 2015 (). There have been substantial gains in life expectancy over time, with life expectancy at birth on average ten years higher today than it was in 1970. A number of countries reported slight falls in life expectancy between 2014 and 2015, though preliminary data for 2016 suggest these reductions were temporary.

There remain large gaps in life expectancy between women and men in all OECD countries. On average across OECD countries, life expectancy at birth for women was 83.1 years in 2015, compared with 77.9 years for men, a gap of 5.2 years (). The gender gap in life expectancy increased substantially in many OECD countries during the 1970s and early 1980s to reach a peak of almost seven years in the mid-1980s, but it has narrowed since, reflecting higher gains in life expectancy among men than women. This can be attributed at least partly to narrowing of differences in risk-increasing behaviours such as smoking, accompanied by sharp reductions in mortality rates from circulatory diseases among men.

Over 10 million people died in 2015 across OECD countries, which equates to an average of 793 deaths per 100 000 population. Diseases of the circulatory system and cancer are the two leading causes of death in most countries. Across the OECD, more than one in three deaths were caused by ischaemic heart diseases, stroke or other circulatory diseases; and one in four deaths were related to cancer.

Despite substantial declines in recent decades, circulatory diseases remain the main cause of mortality in most OECD countries, accounting for more than one-third (36%) of all deaths in 2015. Prospects for further reductions may be hampered by a rise in certain risk factors such as obesity and diabetes (OECD, 2015). Circulatory diseases cover a range of illnesses related to the circulatory system, particularly ischaemic heart disease (including heart attack) and cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke.

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in OECD countries after circulatory diseases, accounting for 25% of all deaths in 2015, up from 15% in 1960. In a number of countries such as Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and Australia, the mortality rate for cancer is higher than for circulatory diseases. The rising share of deaths due to cancer reflects the fact that mortality rates from other causes, particularly circulatory diseases, has been declining more rapidly than for cancer.

Infant mortality, the rate at which babies and children of less than one year of age die, is the most fundamental measure of infant health. In OECD countries, around two-thirds of the deaths that occur during the first year of life are neonatal deaths (i.e. during the first four weeks). Birth defects, prematurity and other conditions arising during pregnancy are the main factors contributing to neonatal mortality in developed countries. For deaths beyond a month (post-neonatal mortality), there tends to be a greater range of causes – the most common being SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), birth defects, infections and accidents.

Mental illness represents a considerable – and growing – proportion of the global burden of disease. An estimated one in two people will experience a mental illness in their lifetime, and around one in five working-age adults suffer from mental ill-health at any given time (OECD, 2012; OECD, 2015). Depression alone affects millions of individuals each year. shows self-reported prevalence of depression in Europe. On average, 12-month prevalence of depression was 7.9% of the population. Women reported higher rates of depression in all countries; in Spain, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland women were more than 50% more likely to report experiencing depression in the previous year than men, rising to 66% in Portugal. People in Iceland or Ireland were close to three times more likely to report depression than people in the Czech Republic (). These differences are in part driven by different attitudes and understandings around mental ill-health and depression. Lower stigma around depression may contribute to higher rates of self-reported illness, and higher rates of diagnosis.

Most OECD countries conduct regular health surveys which allow respondents to report on different aspects of their health. A commonly asked question is of the type: “How is your health in general?”. Despite the subjective nature of this question, indicators of perceived general health are a good predictor of people’s future health care use and mortality (Palladino et al., 2016).

In 2012, an estimated 5.8 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in OECD countries, 54% (around 3.1 million) occurring in men and 46% (around 2.7 million) in women. The most common were breast cancer (12.9% of all new cancer cases) and prostate cancer (12.8%), followed by lung cancer (12.3%) and colorectal cancer (11.9%). These four cancers represented half of the estimated overall burden of cancer in OECD countries (Ferlay et al., 2014).

Diabetes is a chronic disease, characterised by high levels of glucose in the blood. It occurs either because the pancreas stops producing the hormone insulin (Type 1 diabetes), or because the cells of the body do not respond properly to the insulin produced (Type 2 diabetes). People with diabetes are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke, sight loss, foot and leg amputation and renal failure.