Influential factors of socio-economic and air pollution on life expectancy (LE) show complexity. The investigations of non-linear functions of LE, socio-economic, and air pollution factors have not been largely conducted, and spatial and temporal differences of the linear or non-linear relations between LE and the influential factors have been obscured across countries in the world. In this study, the non-linear relations between LE and factors of per capita gross national income (GNIpc), urban population rate (UPR), and fine-particulate (PM2.5) were estimated from 2000 to 2015 by using a generalized additive model (GAM). The collected data included the 219 countries and regions with sufficient data and covers the period 2000-2015. The results demonstrate that at the global level, the GNIpc plays a stable and significant non-linear role in LE, while the non-linear relationships between UPR, PM2.5, and LE are not significant. The temporal variation was further investigated that the non-linear effect of PM2.5 on LE is gradually strengthened, and the non-linear effect of UPR on LE shows a weakened trend. However, GNIpc always plays a significantly non-linear role in the LE level. Furthermore, the spatial difference in the non-linear relations among different continents is detected. In sum, it cannot be ignored the non-linear effects of socio-economic and air pollution factors on LE at a global scale and across different continents.
Keywords: Air pollution; Generalized additive model; Life expectancy at birth; Social-economic factors; Spatial difference.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.