Life expectancy for Muscovites has climbed to 77 years thanks to improving healthcare, the city’s mayor announced on Tuesday.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that city was closing the gap between life expectancy in the Russian capital and other eastern European countries.
The average life expectancy for Muscovites has increased by three years since 2010, bringing residents in line with countries such as Slovakia and Estonia, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Sobyanin credited the change to improving healthcare services and more accessible high-tech medical procedures.
“There are still a lot of problems to solve, more specifically raising salaries for medical staff, improving vocational training and building more medical centers,” Sobyanin said.
Life expectancy across Russia has not yet reached the same highs as in the capital, with the national average lingering at just above 71 years, according to Russia’s Health Ministry.
The lowest levels of life expectancy are found in the eastern republic of Tuva, where it remains at just under 62 years.
In 2015, the OECD attributed Russia's slow increase in life expectancy to “the impact of the economic transition in the 1990s and a rise in risk-increasing behavior among men,” such as drinking and smoking.
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