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Average life expectancy in Russia hits 72.9 years

The life expectancy has been rising with every passing year in Russia- in 2017, it stood at 72.7 years compared to 71.9 years in 2016

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The average life expectancy in Russia has hit a new high in 2018, rising 0.2 years to reach 72.9 years, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told reporters on Wednesday.

"We have reached a new high as far as average life expectancy is concerned… It is now 72.9 years," she said, adding that the gap between the life expectancy for men and women had narrowed.

Russia’s average life expectancy has been rising with every passing year. In 2017, it stood at 72.7 years compared to 71.9 years in 2016.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly that one of the country’s goals was to reach an average life expectancy of over 80 years. The Healthcare and Demography national projects are particularly aimed at achieving this task. The Healthcare project stipulates measures to significantly reduce working-age mortality, as well as deaths from circulatory diseases and cancer. At the same time, the Demography project focuses on reducing over working age mortality rates.

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