A Lancet Healthy Longevity editorial marking the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples examines the persistent lifespan and healthspan disparities affecting an estimated 476 million Indigenous people across 90 countries. It attributes these shared adversities to common histories of colonialism and dispossession that removed ancestral lands and disrupted cultural identity, and calls for ageing research and services shaped by Indigenous communities themselves.
Key Points
- 476 million Indigenous people across 90 countries face parallel health adversities
- Loss of land and cultural identity underlies shared longevity disparities
- Ageing research and care require Indigenous-led design and governance
Longevity Analysis
Disparities of this magnitude are not explained by individual behaviour; they trace to conditions that impose chronic strain on the stress response, immune regulation, and emotional wellbeing across generations. Removing structural interference — displacement, exclusion from care, erosion of cultural continuity — is the precondition for any downstream intervention to work, and connection to land, language, and community functions as a measurable protective factor rather than a cultural aside. Longevity science advances only when its data, definitions of healthy ageing, and delivery models are shaped by the populations they are meant to serve.
Original published by The Lancet Healthy Longevity, by The Lancet Healthy Longevity.