State of health in Southeast Asia - statistics & facts
Despite being composed of just 11 countries, Southeast Asia is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world. This diversity also applies to many other demographic and economic aspects of the region, which is made up of highly populated archipelagos like Indonesia and the Philippines as well as smaller countries like Timor-Leste and Brunei. Naturally, health indicators like life expectancy and nutrition also vary greatly across Southeast Asia, while some health challenges such as particular tropical diseases are faced by several of its countries.
Over the past decade, the number of malaria cases in Southeast Asia has decreased from over 13 million per year to around five million in 2022. This decline can be attributed to successful preventative measures such as large-scale vaccination and building strategies such as indoor residual spraying (IRS) of walls where mosquitoes are known to rest as well as insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) around beds.
Life expectancy
At around 84 years, Singapore has the highest life expectancy in Southeast Asia, followed by Thailand and Malaysia in the upper seventies. In contrast, Laos, Timor-Leste, and Myanmar have average life expectancies below 70 years. The leading causes of death in Southeast Asia are non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and cancer. In 2022, more than 700 thousand Southeast Asians died of cancer, with lung, liver, and breast cancer being the deadliest cancer types in the region.Food security and nutrition
Food insecurity and malnutrition are also major causes of shortened life expectancy rates in some Southeast Asian countries. As a subregion, SEA has the second lowest prevalence of food insecurity in the Asia-Pacific region, and the number of undernourished people has also declined steadily over the past decade. However, some countries such as the Philippines and Timor-Leste still have a high share of low birth weight babies due to maternal malnutrition.Endemic tropical and subtropical diseases
Due to its climate, Southeast Asia is home to many tropical diseases. Many of these diseases are mosquito-borne, including malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis. In the first five months of 2024, there had already been more than 100 thousand dengue fever cases in Southeast Asia, most of them in Indonesia and Malaysia.Over the past decade, the number of malaria cases in Southeast Asia has decreased from over 13 million per year to around five million in 2022. This decline can be attributed to successful preventative measures such as large-scale vaccination and building strategies such as indoor residual spraying (IRS) of walls where mosquitoes are known to rest as well as insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) around beds.
