We're Number 30!

The United Nations just released its human development report, with the latest (2004) statistics on life expectancy. Here's the top 30 countries:

1 Japan 82.2
2 Hong Kong 81.8
3 Iceland 80.9
4 Switzerland 80.7
5 Australia 80.5
6 Sweden 80.3
7 Canada 80.2
8 Italy 80.2
9 Israel 80
10 Spain 79.7
11 Norway 79.6
12 France 79.6
13 New Zealand 79.3
14 Austria 79.2
15 Belgium 79.1
16 Germany 78.9
17 Singapore 78.9
18 Finland 78.7
19 Cyprus 78.7
20 Luxembourg 78.6
21 Malta 78.6
22 Netherlands 78.5
23 United Kingdom 78.5
24 Greece 78.3
25 Costa Rica 78.3
26 United Arab Emirates 78.3
27 Chile 78.1
28 Ireland 77.9
29 Cuba 77.6
30 United States 77.5

Yup, we just fell behind Cuba. Ye gads. Our correspondent from the University of Washington who emailed this in added this comment:

When I went to medical school in 1970, the US was about 12th, when I went to public health school in 1992, we were about 20th, and last year, 29th, the year before that 27th. I have no idea how much farther we will descend. It just means that we all die much younger than we should.

Want to feel even worse? In the CIA tables, where they include small countries such as Andorra and Monaco, we're number 48!