Average life expectancy in Israel has topped 80 years - reaching 80.8 years in 2005-2009, two years longer than it was in 1998-2002, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday.

However, life expectancies differ widely between different communities, the report showed.

Ra'anana, a wealthy Jewish city in the center of the country, had the highest average life expectancy of any Israel city in the 2005-09 survey: 85.5 years. It was followed by Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut (84.1 years ) and Beit Shemesh (83 years ).

Life expectancy was lowest, 77.1 years, in the Bedouin town of Rahat, while the Arab city of Nazareth had the second-lowest life expectancy (77.9 years ). In other words, the gap between life expectancies in Ra'anana and Rahat, the top and bottom of the chart, was a hefty 8.4 years.

Still, this is four months less than the gap that the bureau's previous survey, conducted in 1998-2002, found. Thus, even though life expectancy rose throughout Israel, the rise was not uniform: Between this survey and the last, for instance, life expectancy rose by 1.8 years in Ra'anana and 2.2 years in Nazareth, which was at the bottom of the chart last time around (Rahat wasn't included in that survey because it was too small; the survey covers only towns with at least 50,000 residents ).

But many health professionals expect this trend of narrowing gaps to reverse in the coming years as new, life-prolonging treatments like stem cell therapy enter the market. As gerontology researcher Dr. Yaakov Ben-Shaul noted, many of these treatments will be very expensive, and only some will be covered by health insurance. Thus, life expectancy gaps between rich and poor can be expected to widen.

Among Israel's largest cities, those with over 100,000 residents, Ramat Gan had the highest average life expectancy (82.6 years ) while Be'er Sheva had the lowest (79.8 years ). In short, even among the major cities, there was a gap of almost three years.

Among other major cities, Rishon Letzion's average life expectancy was 81.9 years, Jerusalem's 81.5, Haifa's 80.8 and Tel Aviv's 80.1.

Dan Even contributed to this report.