General view of the Principality of Monaco, 30 June 2011. Photo by BGNES

Residents of Monaco boast the highest average life expectancy in the world, 89.73 years, or five years more than Macau, which ranks second on the list at 84.41.

According to the CIA World Factbook, as cited by CNN, the world average is 67.07 years.

The ranking includes 220 countries and territories.

There are three other European states among the top ten - San Marino (83.01), which ranks third, followed by Andorra (82.43) and Italy (81.77), which occupies 8th place.

Bulgaria ranks 114th with an average life expectancy of 73.59 years.

The top performer on the Balkans is Greece (79.92 years, 30th place).

Compared to the other Balkan states, Bulgaria manages to outpace only Turkey, which scores 72.5 years and ranks 125th.

The bottom of the ranking contains countries like Swaziland, Somalia, Chad, South Africa, etc.

Angora occupies the last place with an average 38.76 years, far behind Afghanistan (45.02).

The United States, which comes in at No. 49, has an average life expectancy of 78.37.

Russia is as far back as place 159 with 66.29 years.

A total of 29 countries have average life expectancies of 80-plus years, while 8 countries have life expectancies under 50.

Angola, which is still recovering from a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002, has the highest crude death rate in the world is in Angola, with 23.4 deaths a year for every 1000 people.