Access to healthcare, obesity, drinking water…: the Spaniards have the best health in the world

According to the 2019 Bloomberg Index, the Spaniards would simply have the best health in the world. This ranking includes many data, such as the life expectancy of countries, the rates of smokers and obese people or even access to drinking water.

The rest of the top 10 is completed by Iceland, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Norway and Israel. France comes in twelfth position while the United States, very affected by obesity and overdoses of painkillers, only reached 35th place.

The famous Mediterranean diet

The very good results of our Spanish neighbors would be attributed in particular to the country’s health system. “Basic care is essentially provided by public providers, specialist family doctors and auxiliary nurses, who provide preventive services as well as intensive or long-term care for children, women and elderly patients,” the report said. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

The famous Mediterranean diet, defined as the best diet to follow by many experts, would also have something to do with it. Admittedly, the Spaniards tend to eat too much fat, but “the Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts, leads to fewer cardiovascular accidents than a diet low in fat”, affirms for example a University of Navarra Medical School study.

Access to drinking water remains problematic

In terms of life expectancy alone, however, the Japanese remain at the top of the ranking, with their 65,000 centenarians (average age of death: 83.7 years). The countries that improved the most compared to the previous year are South Korea, which fell from 24th to 17th place, Estonia, which fell from 38th to 32nd place, and Albania , which rose from 50th to 43rd. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where access to drinking water remains problematic, constitute 27 of the 30 worst countries in terms of public health.