Planned country of residence

This website is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for medical advice.

Summary

  • Where you live strongly shapes life expectancy through healthcare access and quality, social support systems, safety, environment, and economic conditions.
  • In one cross-country analysis, countries with publicly funded healthcare systems had higher average life expectancy (76.7 years) than countries without such systems (66.8 years), a difference of about 10 years.
  • Life expectancy can differ by 20–30 years across countries, making country context one of the strongest “baseline” predictors of longevity.
  • In the US, foreign-born adults have higher life expectancy than US-born adults (men: 81.4 vs 74.4 years; women: 85.7 vs 79.5 years).

Factor description

  • This factor measures your primary country of residence over the past 10 years.
  • It is a geographic/context variable (not a lab test or a wearable metric).
  • Measurement is typically self-reported (you select a country). In some datasets, “residence” may be inferred from address/registry data.
  • Timeframe matters: the “past 10 years” framing aims to capture long-term exposure to a country’s systems and living conditions, not a short trip.

Impact on all-cause mortality

  1. Health system access and quality
  • Countries differ in access to primary care, preventive services, emergency care, and treatment for chronic disease.
  • When prevention and treatment are more available and affordable, deaths from many causes (especially cardiovascular disease, infections, and treatable cancers) tend to fall, improving all-cause mortality.
  1. Social determinants and public spending
  • Education, income security, housing stability, and social protection affect health behaviors and stress exposure across the life course.
  • Countries with stronger safety nets often see better population health and longer life expectancy, partly by reducing avoidable deaths.
  1. Environment and infrastructure
  • Air quality, clean water, sanitation, transport safety, and workplace protections vary widely by country.
  • These exposures affect multiple causes of death (respiratory and cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, injuries), which then show up in all-cause mortality.
  1. Safety, violence, and injury risk
  • Road safety, occupational safety, and violence rates differ by national policy and enforcement.
  • Injury-related deaths can meaningfully shift all-cause mortality, especially in younger and working-age groups.
  1. Dose-response and “threshold” pattern
  • This factor behaves like a context “lookup”: countries cluster into higher- and lower-life-expectancy environments rather than showing a smooth dose-response inside a single person.
  • In practice, the effect is mostly driven by large differences between countries, plus important within-country inequality (region, neighborhood, income).

Patterns

  • The largest gaps tend to appear between higher-income, stable-governance countries and countries facing poverty, weak infrastructure, conflict, or fragile health systems.
  • Within the same country, life expectancy often differs by region and socioeconomic status, meaning “country” is a strong predictor but not the full story.
  • Migration can create notable within-country differences: in the US, foreign-born populations have higher life expectancy than US-born populations (often called an “immigrant advantage”).
  • Policy patterns matter: healthcare coverage structure, social spending, and public health capacity often align with national life expectancy differences.

KamaLama scoring

This factor is best modeled as a context-based predictor (lookup-based), not a behavior-based dose-response. KamaLama scoring can use a country-level life expectancy value as a baseline input, then layer modifiable lifestyle and health factors on top. Because life expectancy differs by sex and year in many sources, scoring is typically tied to a specific reference period (for example, recent national life tables). The scores below are taken directly from the values provided in your text (examples, not an exhaustive country list).

Category/RangeScore (in years)
Monaco85.87
Japan83.27
San Marino82.92
Hong Kong82.74
Andorra82.42
Countries with publicly funded healthcare systems (mean)76.7
Countries without publicly funded healthcare systems (mean)66.8
United States, foreign-born men81.4
United States, US-born men74.4
United States, foreign-born women85.7
United States, US-born women79.5

Practical tips

  • Treat “country of residence” as your baseline context, then focus on modifiable factors (smoking, activity, diet quality, sleep, blood pressure, vaccinations, screening).
  • Learn the highest-impact prevention actions that are easy to access where you live (blood pressure checks, diabetes screening, cancer screening, vaccines).
  • If healthcare access is limited, prioritize low-cost, high-impact habits: not smoking, regular walking, maintaining healthy body weight, and managing blood pressure.
  • Reduce injury risk based on local patterns: seat belts, helmets, safe driving, and workplace safety practices.
  • If you moved countries, keep track of changes in healthcare access, diet, activity, and social connections; those often explain much of the health shift after migration.
  • If you are considering relocation, compare healthcare coverage, affordability, and preventive care access (not only hospitals).

References

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Planned country of residence insight | KamaLama