Democracies Top Dictatorships for Public Health, New Study Finds

People lived longer in countries that became democracies from 1970 to 2015, and that system of government played a bigger role in public health than economic performance, according to a report published in The Lancet.

The report, published Wednesday, found that democratic governance is associated with declines in “cardiovascular disease mortality and road deaths, as well as increases in government health spending,” boosting life expectancy by an average of three percent after 10 years.