Life expectancy worldwide has increased by about five years in the last 15 years, the World Health Organisation has revealed. 

The rise is the fastest seen since the 1960s with the biggest increase seen in Africa, according to today's report. 

This is the due to improvements in health care for children and the better availability of medicines, including those for malaria and AIDS.

The UN health agency says globally, life expectancy for a baby born in 2015 was 71 for women and 69 for men, with women in Japan and men in Switzerland typically living the longest.

Sierra Leone had the lowest life expectancy for both genders.

The report noted there were glaring gaps in data from some countries and that about half of all deaths worldwide aren't registered.

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The table shows life expectancy at birth (in light blue) and lost healthy years (dark blue) by region. From left to right, this includes Africa (AFR) with Algeria at the top with 75.6 years and Sierra Leone bottom at 58.3 years, the Americas (AMR) including Canada top (82.2 years) and Haiti bottom (63.5 years). In the South East Asia Region (SEAR) people in the Maldives can expect to live until 78 while Myanmar is bottom at 66.6 years. In Europe (EUR) Switzerland ranks top (83.4 years) while in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) Qatar is top (78.2 years) while Japan has the longest live expectancy in Western Pacific Region (WPR) at 89.7 years

But Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, said the figures represented 'great strides' in global health. 

'The world has made great strides in reducing the needless suffering and premature deaths that arise from preventable and treatable diseases,' she said. S

'But the gains have been uneven. Supporting countries to move towards universal health coverage based on strong primary care is the best thing we can do to make sure no-one is left behind.'

Key findings of the report include:

·         Average global life expectancy for children born in 2015 was 71.4 years (73.8 years for females and 69.1 years for males)

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·         Newborns in 29 countries - all of them high-income - have an average life expectancy of 80 years or more

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·         But in 22 others -all of them in sub-Saharan Africa - newborns have life expectancy of less than 60 years

With an average lifespan of 86.8 years, women in Japan can expect to live the longest. Switzerland enjoys the longest average survival for men, at 81.3 years.

People in Sierra Leone have the world's lowest life-expectancy for both sexes: 50.8 years for women and 49.3 years for men.

Healthy life expectancy -which is a measure of the number of years of good health that a newborn in 2015 can expect - stands at 63.1 years globally (64.6 years for females and 61.5 years for males).

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The regional and global life expectancy increase in years, by decade, according to figures collated by the World Health Organisation 

The tables shows the countries with the highest and lowest life expectancies by gender. Switzerland has the highest life expectancy for men at 81.3 years and women in Japan live an average 86.8 years

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There were 195,000 maternal deaths in Africa in 2015 compared to just 1,800 in Europe and 9,800 in the Western Pacific Region (WPR)

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This world map shows the prevalence of HIV in 2014 by region in with the darkest regions showing the highest incidence

The 'World Health Statistics' bring together the most recent data on the health-related targets within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. 

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Cardiovascular disease remains the biggest global cause of premature death, accounting for 37 per cent of cases

But with more than half of deaths globally going unregistered, the report highlights significant data gaps that will need to be filled in order to reliably track progress.

Several countries – including Brazil, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, South Africa and Turkey – have made considerable progress in that area. 

The report found many countries are still far from universal health coverage as measured by an index of access to 16 essential services, especially in the African and eastern Mediterranean regions.

Furthermore, a significant number of people who use services face catastrophic health expenses, defined as out-of-pocket health costs that exceed 25 per cent of total household spending.

The report includes data that illustrate inequalities in access to health services within countries –between a given country's poorest residents and the national average for a set of reproductive, maternal and child health services. 

Among a limited number of countries with recent data, Swaziland, Costa Rica, Maldives, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Jordan and Mongolia lead their respective regions in having the most equal access to services for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.

The 'World Health Statistics 2016' provides a comprehensive overview of the latest annual data in relation to the health-related targets in the SDGs, illustrating the scale of the challenge.

Published every year since 2005, WHO's 'World Health Statistics' is the definitive source of information on the health of the world's people. 

It contains data from 194 countries on a range of mortality, disease and health system indicators, including life expectancy, illness and death from key diseases, health services and treatments, financial investment in health, and risk factors and behaviours that affect health.

WHO's Global Health Observatory updates health statistics year round of more than 1000 health indicators. Members of the public can use it to find the latest health statistics on global, regional and country levels.

Incidence of catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditure among 36 countries with comparable data from  2002–2012

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Healthy life expectancy at birth by gender and WHO region. The horizontal lines, for example Africa which is 54 for women and 52 for men, show the median (middle) and the grey boxing shows the middle range of life expectancies for the region

The graph depicts the regional and global life expectancies (dotted line) and healthy life expectancy at birth with different factors such as injuries (black) mental disorders (purple) shows the lost healthy life expectancies 

Culled from Mail Online