Biological age across the globe: 1990–2019

In this paper, we use data of the Global Burden and Disease Study to compute biological age across the world at the country–age-group–year level and separately for men and women. Biological age is the predicted age of a person determined by their health indicators. As health indicator, we use the frailty index, which is the proportion of age-related health deficits present in a person. We demonstrate that biological age varies significantly across the globe. For instance, the average biological age of chronologically 65-year old men varies between 61 to 74 years across countries. Given chronological age, biological age increased significantly from 1990–2019, in particular in age groups above 65. We also find evidence for conditional convergence of biological age. These trends are driven primarily by biologically young people in Africa who are becoming biologically older, and by biologically old people in rich countries who are becoming biologically younger. We find little evidence of absolute convergence, i.e. declining inequality in the global distribution of biological age.