Why do Jordanians live so long?

Be born Jordanian and you can expect to live nearly fourteen years longer than the world’s average, with a better than even chance of celebrating your 80^th birthday. Now a quick check of the numbers shows that that is the same if you’re born in the United Kingdom, so, why the surprise? Well you’ll see in a minute.

What are the indicators of life expectancy? Well, sadly but perhaps unsurprisingly, avoid being born in one of those unfortunate African countries in the grip of the HIV pandemic. That’s a good start. Next avoid extremes of heat and cold; Qatar’s and Greenland’s numbers show that one pretty clearly. But the indicator that stands out is money. Roughly speaking the more you have, the longer you live.

There is a measure beloved of economists known as Gross Domestic Product (GDP for short) per capita; it translates roughly into income per person. There is a very good correlation between that statistic and life expectancy at birth on a country by country basis.

It isn’t perfect of course, Monaco natives spend the longest on this earth, while those of Qatar, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Bermuda can expect to be a little bit richer, but it’s pretty good, with a rank correlation of over 81%.

And then there’s Jordan, way down the list of earners, in the bottom third in fact, yet offering longer life than the top three richest combined. Why?

Smoking is vaguely sort of a bit banned but not all that much. Body mass index is above normal, unlike in Asia and in the UK – in short they’re over-weight. Booze is available if expensive, but not as bad as in Scandinavia. It’s a hot country. Death on the roads is four times as bad as Western Europe’s worst – Belgium.

At this point, there should be some stunning revelation. Here it is. Sorry, I just don’t know the Jordanian secret. I wish I did. And that I could bottle it. And sell it. But I don’t.

So, any modern anthropologist looking for a good subject for a Ph.D. thesis? If so, get a grant to discover what’s so special about Jordan, find it and then PATENT IT BEFORE PUBLISHING. Flog it on Facebook and Twitter and grow rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Oh, and give me 10%.