Spain is the country in the European Union (EU) with the highest life expectancy, at 84 years and above the Community average, which is 81.5 years. Romania has the third lowest life expectancy in the EU, at 76.6 years, according to the latest data published by Eurostat.
Romania is followed in this ranking only by Latvia, with 75.9 years and Bulgaria, with 75.8 years.
However, the largest increase in life expectancy from 2019 to 2023 was registered in Romania, the increase in life expectancy being one year, followed by Lithuania (+0.8 years) and Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Malta (all with an increase of +0.7 years).
At the opposite pole are Austria and Finland, which recorded the biggest decreases in life expectancy (minus 0.4 years each), followed by Estonia and the Netherlands (minus 0.2 years).
This is preliminary data collected at the end of 2023, according to which Spain has the highest life expectancy at birth in the entire European Union (84 years), followed closely by Italy (83.8 years) and Malta (83.6 years ).
In total, 15 of the 27 EU member countries exceed the EU average for life expectancy (81.5 years).
This is the life expectancy of all EU countries, ordered from highest to lowest:
- Spain (84 years),
- Italy (83.8 years),
- Malta (83.6),
- Sweden (83.4),
- Luxembourg (83.4),
- France (83.1),
- Belgium (82.5),
- Cyprus (82.5),
- Portugal (82.4),
- Netherlands (82),
- Slovenia (82),
- Denmark (81.9),
- Finland (81.7),
- Greece (81.6),
- Austria (81.6),
- Germany (81.2),
- Czech Republic (80),
- Estonia (78.8),
- Croatia (78.8),
- Poland (78.6),
- Slovakia (78.1),
- Lithuania (77.3),
- Hungary (76.9),
- Romania (76.6),
- Latvia (75.9),
- Bulgaria (75.8).
In general, the countries with the lowest life expectancy are those in Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries, while the countries in the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and Central Europe have the highest life expectancy.
