Decreased Life Experience In Greece, Cyprus, Increases In Italy, France, Malta
Life expectancy saw a decline in Greece and Cyprus by 1.1 and -0.6 respectively according to Eurostat, while countries such as France, Italy and Malta saw increases of +0.2, +0.6 and +0.6.
Life expectancy at birth has been increasing over the last decade in EU with official statistics revealing that life expectancy has increased, on average, by more than two years every ten years since the 1960s. However, the latest available data suggest that life expectancy has stopped or even decreased in several EU Member States. Some Member States (mostly in Western Europe) have seen their life expectancy return to pre-COVID levels, while others (mostly in Eastern Europe) have suffered the impact of the pandemic later and in full in 2021, so any rebound has yet to be reflected in the data.
According to preliminary data from 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020 had a negative effect with life expectancy at birth declining in almost half of the EU Member States in 2021. The largest decreases were estimated in Slovakia and Bulgaria (-2.2 years compared to 2020), followed by Latvia (-2.1) and Estonia (-2.0).
Compared to the year before the 2019 pandemic, the overall effect on life expectancy remains negative in all EU Member States except Luxembourg (+0.1), Malta and Sweden. (same level in 2019 and 2021). In some cases, life expectancy continued to worsen in 2021, leading to an estimated overall loss of more than two years.
The largest decreases compared to 2019 were recorded in Bulgaria (-3.7), Slovakia (-3.0), and Romania (-2.7).