New international research has found that Australians are among the longest-lived people in the English-speaking world, outliving their peers in five high-income English-speaking countries by up to five years.

This advantage shows mostly in the age group 45 to 84, with death rates from drug and alcohol misuse, screenable/treatable cancers, and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases all lower in Australia, the analysis shows.

Analysis of the data from 1990 to 2019 showed that Australia has been the best performer in life expectancy at birth since the early 1990s, leading its peer countries by 1.26–3.95 years for women and by 0.97–4.88 years for men in 2018.

Specifically, Australia has a four to five year life expectancy advantage over the USA and a one to 2.5 year advantage over Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK.

For most of the period between 1990 and 2019, Canada had the second highest life expectancy. Most recently, Ireland and New Zealand have matched Canada.

But in every year since 2001, the USA has been the worst performer. And in the most recent decade, the UK generally had the second lowest life expectancy.

Similar trends are observed for life expectancy at age 65, with Australia generally performing the best and the USA the worst, with the USA’s poor life expectancy ranking at age 65 emerging more recently.

However, broadening the picture, things are quite different for men and women.

Researchers also gathered data from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland for context, from the same time period.

While women in English speaking countries never ranked among the top performers in female life expectancy between 1990 and 2019 in all 20 high income countries, men —with the exception of the US — typically have ranked in the top half over the past decade.

And out of all these countries, Australian men ranked in the top four in all but one year between 1990 and 2019. But American men have had the lowest life expectancy since 2005.

The researchers acknowledge that they couldn’t account for differences within local neighbourhoods, and that there may be differences in cause of death coding, particularly at older ages where several conditions may co-exist.

But there are several possible explanations for Australia’s top ranking, they suggest, among which are the country’s high proportion of people born overseas — nearly 30 per cent in 2018.

A low prevalence of smoking might be another, while public health initiatives around gun ownership and mental health, and its highly rated healthcare system, might also explain Australia’s position at the top of the life expectancy league table.

“Australia performs well, but still has room for improvement, particularly in the area of reducing inequalities among its indigenous populations,” and in its rates of obesity, say the researchers.

“Overall, Australia offers a potential model for lower-performing Anglophone countries, such as the USA and UK, to follow to reduce both premature mortality and inequalities in life expectancy,” they said.