EU life expectancy hits 81.4 years, exceeding pre-COVID level

In 2023, life expectancy at birth in the EU was 81.4 years, marking an increase of 0.8 years from 2022. After having declined in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy has reached values higher than in 2019. This was also the highest recorded value since 2002, reflecting a total increase of 3.8 years. 

This information comes from data on life expectancy published recently by Eurostat. The article presents a selection of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Highest life expectancy in Comunidad de Madrid

The EU region with the highest life expectancy at birth was the Spanish region of Comunidad de Madrid (86.1 years), followed by Provincia Autonoma di Trento in Italy (85.1 years), Åland in Finland (85.1 years), Comunidad Foral de Navarra in Spain and Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen in Italy (both 85.0 years).

Conversely, among the 5 EU regions with the lowest life expectancy at birth, 3 were in Bulgaria: Severozapaden (73.9 years), Severen tsentralen (75.2 years), and Yugoiztochen (75.1 years). The other 2 were Észak-Magyarország in Hungary (74.9 years) and Mayotte in France (74.9 years).

Source dataset: demo_mlexpec

Women expected to live 5.3 years longer

For women in the EU, life expectancy at birth reached 84.0 years in 2023 (up by 0.7 compared with 2022 and the same value as in 2019) and for men at 78.7 years (+0.8 compared with 2022 and +0.2 compared with 2019). 

In 2023, life expectancy at birth for women was 5.3 years longer than that for men, with variations between EU countries. In Latvia, women were expected to live 10.1 years longer than men, followed by Lithuania (9.0 years) and Estonia (8.8 years).

The smallest gender gaps were in the Netherlands (3.0 years), and Sweden and Luxembourg (both 3.3 years). 

Source dataset: demo_mlexpec