Korean women outlive men by 7 years: U.N.

The average Korean woman lives seven years longer than her male counterpart, according to report by the United Nations Population Fund.

The State of World Population 2012 survey also showed that Korean women and men live the eighth and 26th longest in the world respectively.

The average life span of Korean women is 84 years and that of Korean men is 77.3 years.

According to the UNPF report, the world population surpassed 7 billion as of October last year and stands at around 7.1 billion.

China ranked the first in terms of population as it has 1.4 billion people, followed by India with 1.3 billion, and the U.S. with 320 million.

The entire population of South Korea stands at 49 million which is the 26th largest among 189 nations. North Korea has 25 million people.

The average life span of North Korean women is 72.1 years while that of their male counterparts was 65.9 years.

The report also says that the expected fertility rate of South Korea from 2010 to 2015 is 1.4 per woman, the fifth lowest in the world. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked the lowest, with 1.1, followed by Austria, Portugal and Molta, which all recorded 1.3.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)