People who share the most or belong to wealthy and supportive societies would live longer. That’s what a new study suggests.
- Countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Senegal, share the lowest percentage of their lifetime income and have the highest mortality rate of all the countries studied.
- Redistribution influences a country’s death rate, regardless of gross domestic product per capita.
- In France and Japan, the two countries with the lowest death rates of all the countries studied, an average citizen shares between 68 and 69% of their lifetime income.
Give more to live more. German researchers from the Max Planck Institute suggest that the people who give the most are the ones who live the longest. In their analysis, the researchers found a strong relationship between a society’s generosity and the average life expectancy of its members. The researchers conclude that people live longer in societies whose inhabitants support each other with their resources. The results were published on August 31 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
A correlation unrelated to GDP
The act of giving and receiving increases well-being: the recipient benefits directly from the gift and the giver benefits indirectly through emotional satisfaction. “What is new in our study is that, for the first time, we have combined state and family transfer payments and assessed the effect”, reveals Fanny Kluge, lead author of the study. The researchers used data from 34 countries from the National Transfer Accounts Project which includes public and private transfer payments received and given by each individual over their lifetime. They are added up and presented in relation to lifetime income.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Senegal, share the lowest percentage of their lifetime income and have the highest mortality rate of all the countries studied. This correlation is found in more economically developed countries, such as South Africa, where few resources are redistributed. There too, the mortality rate is relatively high. In these countries, the mortality rate of children and young people up to the age of 20 is also higher than in the other countries studied. “Our analyzes suggest that redistribution influences a country’s death rate, regardless of gross domestic product per capita”, confirms Fanny Kluge.
France, the lowest death rate
Societies in Western European countries share more than others and live long. With Japan, they transfer a lot to the youngest and the oldest and the mortality rates are low. The countries studied in South America also have high transfer payments. There, people share more than 60% of their average lifetime income with others. Death rates are lower than in sub-Saharan Africa but higher than in Western Europe and others like Australia, Japan and Taiwan.
In France and Japan, the two countries with the lowest death rates of all the countries studied, an average citizen shares between 68 and 69% of their lifetime income. Here, the risk of dying in the coming year is only half as high for people over 65 as in China or Turkey, for example, where between 44 and 48% of lifetime income is redistributed.
.
