by Jim Rose in development economics, economic history, growth miracles, health economics

In the last 20 years in India, life expectancy at birth increased by 10 years. The same in China. There were increases in Chinese and Indian life expectancies across all age bands.

The difference between the two countries is the low base in India which was 58 years versus 70 years in China for life expectancy at birth. Obviously, recovering from the Permit Raj has been a bit of a struggle for socialist India. Either way, such a rapid increase in life expectancy in India and China suggests broad-based economic growth in the last 20 years.

If you look at China and India over the longer term and compare it with capitalism, again the socialist solution comes up short. The initial improvements in life expectancies in India and China in the mid-20th century were simply curing of endemic diseases and childhood illnesses. Hong Kong and Macau were miles ahead of China until China took the capitalist road.

Source: Cleo Infra.



In the 10 years from 2000, China close that gap in female life expectancies of birth through the blessings of capitalism but not as much freedom as we might have hoped. That said, if you stay out of politics in China, you can run a business, raise a family and travel and study abroad. China is now a tin-pot dictatorship rather than a totalitarian dictatorship. That’s a major improvement.

The differences in Hong Kong and Macau life expectancies is also a good measure of the advantages of being colonised by the British rather than the Portuguese.