Citizens of democratic countries live 11 years longer

The Indo-Canadian Voice featured a UBC sociology study that examined the link between political systems and life expectancy.

Andrew Patterson, the study’s lead author, described the factors that affect life expectancies.

“While our study indicates that people in democracies may live 11 years longer than citizens of non-democratic countries, a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) accounts for eight of those years in models,” he said. “Once we control for GDP, people live only three years longer, on average, compared to citizens of non-democratic countries.”