Countries with more Internet users tend to have longer healthy life expectancies, a study showed Wednesday.

According to a study conducted by the Institute for Longevity Sciences at Wonkwang University, developed countries with high Internet accessibility were found to have longer healthy life expectancies than developing countries with fewer Internet users. Healthy life expectancy refers to how long a person can be expected to live healthily without a disease.

The research team analyzed the World Health Organization’s health life expectancy data of 178 countries and the social economic indexes released by the United Nations and World Bank between 2000 and 2012. The study was published in the latest issue of the Social Indicators Research.

Ireland, with the longest life expectancy of 71.5 years, topped the ranking of Internet users with 70.34 out of 100 citizens. Canada stood at second with 71 years of healthy life expectancy and 67.15 Internet users, followed by Sweden with 71 years of healthy life expectancy and 69.43 Internet users. South Korea took the fourth spot with 70.5 years of healthy life expectancy and 64.39 Internet users.

On the other hand, countries with short healthy life expectancies were found to have low numbers of Internet users.

Sierra Leone, which recorded the shortest life expectancy with 36 years, had only 0.6 out of 100 citizens as Internet users.

“The tendency of longer life expectancy in Internet-developed countries suggests that people are able to easily reach health information online. It also reflects the impact of high income level and urbanization level in the Internet-developed countries,” said institute head professor Kim Jong-in.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)