3.5-year increase in life expectancy between 1990 and 2010

Worldwide, life expectancy increased by 3.5 years between 1990 and 2010. The least developed countries saw a 6-year increase, but their citizens still live 11 fewer years than the global average. The mortality rate among children under 5 has fallen by a third since 1990 while remaining alarmingly high in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. The Millennium Development Goal of a two-thirds reduction in infant mortality by 2015 will not be met unless urgent steps are taken to address pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition. Even though the number of people living with HIV worldwide continues to grow, in 2009 the estimated number of new HIV infections was 19 per cent lower than in 1999. While the annual global number of new cases of tuberculosis continued to increase slightly in 2009, mortality from tuberculosis has fallen by more than a third since 1990, while malaria deaths in 2010 were 26 per cent lower than in 2000. However, non-communicable diseases — including cardiovascular diseases, some types of cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes — are steadily growing worldwide and caused about 36 million deaths in 2008. In addition to other factors, climate change is projected to have major negative impacts on human health.