Environmental Indicators of Life Expectancy

The study determined the global patterns of environmental indicators and life expectancy in 97 countries selected through purposive sampling. Life expectancy index is the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the same time of birth were to stay the same throughout the child’s life. The study used data mining with four phases: exploratory data analysis, confirmation of data for reliability, theory formulation, and theory validation. The global pattern of human development indices revealed that clustering of countries reflects similarities in environmental characteristics. Cluster 1 includes the USA and the highly developed countries in Europe, Australia and Asia. These countries have strong environmental structures. Cluster 2 includes the least developed countries in Africa and Asia with low ratingsin environmental indicators. Cluster 3 is formed by Asian developing countries and other newly industrialized countries. They have low ratings in environmental sustainability indicators. Cluster 4 includes countries in the American continent, and the southern and central parts and Asia. These countries have low environmental sustainability. The global trend of life expectancy indicates that people live longer if they live in countries with sustainable environment in terms of higher environmental health, clean and potable water, and clean and fresh air.

 

Keywords - international pattern, life expectancy index, gross domestic product index, environmental health, water stress, air pollution,