[Life expectancy in Norway--an international perspective]

Contrasts in life expectancy among countries are an important input for defining targets for the health service and for setting priorities for disease prevention and health promotion. In this article, the trend in life expectancy in Norway is compared with the trend in a selection of other OECD countries. Standardised measures of life expectancy were collected from WHO and OECD statistics. In 1960 Norwegians ranged among the top three countries as regards life expectancy for both women and men. In 1990 Norwegians ranged tenth for women and ninth for men. Life expectancy was two years shorter for Norwegian than for Japanese women in 1990, corresponding to a 20% surplus mortality throughout life. Similar differences were found for men. If Japanese age specific death rates are applied to the Norwegian population, this corresponds to a reduction of 9,600 deaths this year. The relatively unfavourable trend in life expectancy in Norway relative to other OECD countries raises concern, and should be considered when designing the future health policy.