Mortality and life expectancy statistics

Data extracted in March 2026

Planned article update: March 2027

Highlights

In 2024, life expectancy at birth in the EU was 81.5 years, up from 81.4 in 2023.

For women, life expectancy at birth in the EU was 84.1 years in 2024, while for men it was 78.9 years.

In 2024, the EU region with the highest life expectancy at birth was the Spanish region of Comunidad de Madrid (85.7 years).

This article provides information relating to mortality and life expectancy in the European Union (EU) based on official statistics up until 2024.

Life expectancy at birth has risen rapidly during the past century due to a number of factors. These include a reduction in infant mortality, rising living standards, improved lifestyles and better education, as well as advances in healthcare and medicine. Official statistics reveal that life expectancy has risen, on average, by more than two years per decade since the 1960s. In 2020, however, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, this indicator declined in 25 EU countries compared to 2019, the exceptions being Denmark and Cyprus. In 2024, life expectancy at birth was equal to or higher than in 2019 in all EU countries except Germany (-0.1 years) and the Netherlands (-0.3 years). The highest increase was observed in Lithuania (+1.0 year) and Cyprus (+1.2 years).

Number of deaths

Over the last four decades, the number of deaths in the EU oscillated between 4.18 and 4.37 million until 2011, when the number started to increase, reaching 4.69 million in 2018. Then, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 a total of 5.19 million deaths was recorded in the EU, reaching a top in 2021 with 5.30 million. In 2024, 4.81 million persons died in the EU (Figure 1). In the EU the crude death rate, which is the number of deaths per 1 000 persons, increased from 10.4 in 2019 to 11.9 in 2021, and was estimated at 10.7 in 2024.

Figure 1

Life expectancy at birth

The most commonly used indicator for analysing mortality is life expectancy at birth, i.e. the mean number of years that a person can expect to live at birth if subjected to current mortality conditions throughout the rest of their life. It is a simple but powerful way of illustrating the developments in mortality.

Life expectancy at birth in the EU was estimated at 81.5 years in 2024, reaching 84.1 years for women (0.1 years higher than in 2023) and 78.9 years for men (0.2 years higher than in 2023). As shown in Figure 2, between 2002 (the first year for which life expectancy data became available for all EU EU countries) and 2019, life expectancy at birth in the EU increased by 3.7 years, from 77.6 to 81.3 years; the increase was 3.1 years for women and 4.2 years for men. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, life expectancy at birth in the EU decreased by 0.9 years to 80.4 and further decreased in 2021 to 80.1. Life expectancy at birth started to increase again in 2022 to 80.6 years and surpassed the pre-pandemic level in 2023 with 81.4 years.

Figure 2

In 2024 there was an increase in life expectancy in 18 EU countries (Tables 1 and 2) compared with 2023. In 5 countries life expectancy at birth remained unchanged, while in four EU countries it decreased. The largest increases in total life expectancy at birth (males and females) was recorded in Latvia (+ 0.8 years) as well as in Finland and Cyprus (+ 0.6 years).

Across the EU regions, in 2024, the highest life expectancy at birth was recorded in the Comunidad de Madrid (85.7 years) in Spain, followed by Provincia Autonoma di Trento and Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano in Italy as well as Stockholm (all at 85.0 years). The EU region with the lowest life expectancy at birth was in Bulgaria: Severozapaden (73.9 years), followed by Mayotte (France) at 74.5 years. (See Map 1) Compared with 2023, Ciudad de Melilla in Spain recorded the highest increase in life expectancy at birth (+1.7 years), followed by Länsi-Suomi in Finland (+0.9 years). On the other side, life expectancy at birth decreased between 2023 and 2024 in Åland (Finland) (-1.8 years) and in the Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste (Italy) (-1.0 year).

Life expectancy at age 65

Table 2 shows that in 2024 life expectancy at age 65 in the EU was estimated at 20.2 years, which means no change compared with 2023. For women, it stayed at 21.8 years as in 2023, while for men it was 18.4 years (up by 0.1 year). In 2024 compared with 2023, life expectancy at age 65 increased in 12 EU countries while 8 EU countries saw a decrease in life expectancy. In seven EU countries life expectancy at age 65 remained unchanged. The highest values were observed in France and Spain (21.9 years) and the smallest value was observed in Bulgaria (16.9 years). For women, the highest figure was in Spain (23.7 years) and the lowest in Hungary (18.6 years) while for men the highest was in Sweden (20.2 years) and the lowest was in Hungary and Bulgaria (both 14.7 years). The highest increase between 2023 and 2024 was observed in Finland while a decrease was recorded in Malta.

Looking at the EU regions, in 2024, the region Comunidad de Madrid in Spain recorded the highest life expectancy at age 65 (23.2 years), followed by Ile de France in France (23.0 years) (Map 2). By contrast, the lowest life expectancy at regional level at age 65 was observed in Mayotte in France (15.5 years) followed by Severozapaden in Bulgaria (16.1 years).

Gender gap in life expectancy

There are major differences between countries when looking at the life expectancy of men and women (Figure 3). In 2024, as in previous years, life expectancy for women was higher than life expectancy for men. With a gender gap of 5.2 years in 2024, newly born girls in the EU could generally expect to outlive boys. This gender gap in life expectancy varied substantially between EU countries. The largest difference between the sexes was found in Latvia (9.8 years) and the smallest in the Netherlands (2.8 years). Since 2002 (the first year for which life expectancy data became available for all EU countries) the gender gap has been decreasing. It narrowed in the EU from 5.3 years in 2023 to 5.2 in 2024.

Figure 3

When looking at life expectancy at age 65, the gap between the sexes is smaller than the gap at birth. In 2024, women aged 65 in the EU could generally expect to outlive men by 3.4 years. The largest difference between the sexes in 2024 was found in Estonia (5.0 years) and the smallest in the Netherlands (2.0 years) (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Infant mortality

Around 12 392 children died before reaching one year of age in the EU in 2024 (112 more infant deaths than in the previous year, up by 0.9 %); this was equivalent to an infant mortality rate of 3.5 deaths per 1 000 live births. Compared with 2019, the last year before COVID-19, the infant death toll dropped by 1707 deaths in 2024 (down by 12.1 %).

Figure 5

One of the reasons for the increase in life expectancy at birth in the EU has been the decrease in infant mortality rates. Between 2014 and 2024, the infant mortality rate in the EU fell from 3.6 deaths per 1 000 live births to 3.5 deaths per 1 000 live births. When extending the analysis to the last 24 years, the infant mortality rate has almost halved (6.2 deaths per 1 000 in 1999). The most significant reductions in infant mortality were generally recorded within those EU countries that tended to record higher levels of infant mortality in earlier years when compared with the EU average. Overall, the decrease in infant mortality rates was one of the factors contributing to higher life expectancies at birth over the same period.

In 2024, the highest infant mortality rates in the EU were registered in Romania (at 6.6 deaths per 1 000 live births) and the lowest was recorded in Estonia (1.4 deaths per 1 000 live births).

Source data for tables and graphs

Mortality and life expectancy statistics: tables and figures

Data sources

Eurostat provides information on a wide range of demographic data, including statistics on the number of deaths by sex, by age, by year of birth, as well as according to citizenship, country of birth and educational attainment; statistics are also collected for infant mortality and late foetal deaths. A series of mortality indicators are produced, which can be used to derive a range of information on subjects such as crude death rates or life expectancy measures by age, sex or educational attainment.

Context

For over two decades, the gradual increase in life expectancy in the EU has been one of the main factors contributing to the ageing of the EU population — alongside relatively low levels of fertility that have persisted for decades (see the articles on population structure and ageing and fertility statistics).

The EU has been going through a period of demographic and societal change. On 17 January 2023, the European Commission published the Staff Working Document on The impact of demographic change in a changing environment which provides further analysis of the demographic changes. In response to the June 2023 European Council conclusions, on 11 October 2023, the Commission put forward a toolbox to support Member States in addressing demographic challenges and their impact on Europe's competitive edge. More information of the work of the European Commission 2024-2029 can be found in the European Commission dedicated pages.

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