Spain has second highest life expectancy in the world

WITH more than 15,000 people aged over 100, Spain officially has the second best life expectancy on the planet.  

The latest data from the OECD, which dates back to 2014, shows that the average person born in Spain today can expect to live to the ripe old age of 83.3. That places residents just behind people in Japan, who live slightly longer at 83.7.

It is the Spanish women who help bring up the national average. Females have a life expectancy of 86.2, while men fall quite a bit behind at 80.4, lower than their counterparts in Japan, Iceland, Italy and Switzerland. 

The UK and Ireland have a lower average than most of western Europe and Scandinavia with both countries at 81.4, though British-born men can expect to live a few months longer than Irish-born. 

In the USA life expectancy for men actually fell for the first time in decades and is now at 76.4, behind neighbouring Costa Rica.

The news comes as a Reuters photographer revealed some of the tips he was given by centenarians he snapped in Spain for a work project. 

Gazpacho, countryside life, having only one child, keeping active, strong family relations and a daily spoon of honey were the top reasons given for their impressive longevity. 

The number of centenarians in Spain is predicted to reach 300,000 in the next 50 years. 

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