According to preliminary data from 2023, life expectancy at birth in the EU was 81.5 years, up 0.9 years from 2022 and 0.2 years from the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
People, young people, seniorsPhoto: Inquam Photos / Laszlo Beliczay
In 15 countries, life expectancy exceeded the EU average, with the highest life expectancy recorded in Spain (84.0 years), Italy (83.8 years) and Malta (83.6 years).
Conversely, the lowest life expectancy was recorded in Bulgaria (75.8 years), Latvia (75.9) and Romania (76.6).
Compared to the pre-pandemic level in 2019, 18 EU countries saw an increase in life expectancy in 2023, while 2 countries remained stable and 6 saw a decrease.
The largest increase was in Romania (+1.0 year), followed by Lithuania (+0.8 year), Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Malta (all with an increase of +0.7 year).
In contrast, Austria and Finland recorded the largest decreases (-0.4 years each), followed by Estonia and the Netherlands (-0.2 years).
Life expectancy at birth represents the average number of years a newborn has to live, if he would live the rest of his life under the age-specific mortality conditions of the reference period of the mortality table
