Life expectancy

Central and Eastern European countries lag behind, but are catching up

Life expectancy at birth has been steadily increasing in all countries since 1995 (Table 3.2). However, a few results stand out when comparing life expectancy across countries in 2012, and its development since 1995.

1 Japan has the highest average life expectancy at birth, at 83.2 years.

Within Europe, the Spanish are expected to live the longest (82.5 years), immediately followed by the Italian (82.4 years) and French (82.1 years) populations.

2 The lowest average life expectancies are found in Latvia and Lithuania, at 74.1 years, followed by the other Central and Eastern European countries.

Region Country 1995 2000 2005 2010 2012 2012 2012 vs 1995

60 70 80 90

Western Europe

Switzerland 78.7 +1.3 +1.5 +1.2 +0.1 82.8

France 77.9 +1.3 +1.1 +1.5 +0.3 82.1

Luxembourg 76.8 +1.2 +1.6 +1.2 +0.7 81.5

Netherlands 77.6 +0.6 +1.4 +1.4 +0.2 81.2

Austria 76.9 +1.4 +1.2 +1.2 +0.4 81.1

United Kingdom 76.7 +1.3 +1.2 +1.4 +0.4 81.0

Germany 76.7 +1.6 +1.1 +1.1 +0.5 81.0

Ireland 75.5 +1.1 +2.4 +1.8 +0.1 80.9

Belgium 77.0 +0.9 +1.2 +1.2 +0.2 80.5

Northern

Europe Sweden 79.0 +0.8 +0.9 +0.9 +0.2 81.8

Norway 77.9 +0.9 +1.5 +0.9 +0.3 81.5

Finland 76.7 +1.1 +1.3 +1.1 +0.5 80.7

Denmark 75.3 +1.6 +1.4 +1.0 +0.9 80.2

Southern

Europe Spain 78.1 +1.2 +1.0 +2.1 +0.1 82.5

Italy 78.3 +1.6 +1.0 +1.3 +0.2 82.4

Cyprus 77.4 +0.3 +1.0 +2.8 –0.4 81.1

Malta 77.2 +1.2 +1.0 +2.1 –0.6 80.9

Greece 77.5 +0.7 +1.3 +1.1 +0.1 80.7

Portugal 75.4 +1.4 +1.4 +1.9 +0.5 80.6

Central and Eastern Europe

Slovenia 74.7 +1.5 +1.3 +2.3 +0.5 80.3

Czech Republic 73.3 +1.8 +1.0 +1.6 +0.4 78.1

Croatia . 74.6 +0.7 +1.4 +0.6 77.3

Poland 72.0 +1.8 +1.2 +1.4 +0.5 76.9

Estonia 67.7 +3.4 +1.9 +3.0 +0.7 76.7

Slovak Republic 72.4 +0.9 +0.8 +1.5 +0.7 76.3

Hungary 70.0 +1.9 +1.1 +1.7 +0.6 75.3

Romania 69.3 +1.9 +1.1 +1.5 +0.7 74.5

Bulgaria 71.0 +0.6 +0.9 +1.3 +0.6 74.4

Lithuania 69.1 +3.0 –0.9 +2.1 +0.8 74.1

Latvia . . 70.6 +2.5 +1.0 74.1

Oceania Australia 77.9 +1.4 +1.6 +0.9 +0.3 82.1

New Zealand 76.8 +1.6 +1.4 +1.2 +0.5 81.5

Northern America

Canada 78.0 +1.0 +1.1 +1.1 +0.3 81.5

United States 75.7 +1.0 +0.7 +1.2 +0.1 78.7

Eastern

Table 3.2 Life expectancy at birth by country, 1995-2012 (in years)

a information from following year; b Information from previous year. Source: Eurostat (Life expectancy, 2014), OECD Statistics (Health status, 2014).

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3 The yearly increase in life expectancy is greatest in Estonia, Latvia and Korea, where the populations gain about an extra six months of life expectancy every year. At the other end of the scale, the Swedish, Greek and Northern American populations show a yearly increase in life expectancy of around two months.

Based on these results, it seems that the gap in life expectancy between countries is narrowing, as the increase in life expectancy is relatively large for the Central and Eastern European countries. For most countries, the increase in life expectancy has attenuated in the most recent years, which may indicate a flattening of the growth in life expectancy.

Inequalities in life expectancy by gender and education level

For many years, the life expectancy at birth has been much higher for women than for men (oecd 2014). Across the 28 eu Member States, the mean gender gap is 6.1 years, ranging from 3.7 years in Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, to ten or more years in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. As with the gap in life expectancies between countries, the gap between men and women is also narrowing. This can mostly be attributed to the narrowing of gender differences in health risk behaviours such as smoking (oecd 2014). Life expectancy varies not only by gender, but also by socioeconomic status as measured by education level (oecd 2013). Highly educated persons are likely to live several years longer and to be in better health. Differences in life expectancy by education level are particularly marked in Central and Eastern European countries.

More highly educated people not only adopt a healthier lifestyle, but also have more resources in terms of income and lifestyle choices, as well as facilitating access to appropriate health care.

Life expectancy at age 65

Life expectancy changes over the course of a person’s life because as they survive the periods of birth, childhood and adolescence, their chance of reaching older age increases. The life expectancy at different ages can be presented as the number of additional years a person can expect to live from a certain age on. The eu-28 population that was aged 65 in 2012 could expect to live another 19.4 years (an average expected age at death of 84.4 years) (Eurostat). Similar to life expectancy at birth, life expectancy at age 65 is highest in Japan, and lowest in the Central and Eastern European countries. On average, 65 year-old Japanese people are expected to live to the age of 86.4 years, whereas 65 year-old Bulgarians are expected to live to age 80.6 (Eurostat).

Disability-free life expectancy

Living longer is seen as a desirable goal. However, the value of these additional years is increased if they can be spent in good health. In the latter stages of life, nearly everyone will eventually have to succumb to the effects of old age and deal with increased disability. For this reason,

disability-free life expectancy (dfle) essentially addresses the question of whether the additional years of life expectancy are spent in good health or in a prolonged state of disability and dependency. If disability-free life years are increasing more rapidly than life expectancy, it means that people are living more years in better health, resulting in a decreased need for long-term care and lower levels of public health expenditure.

About 77% of the remaining life years at birth are expected to be spent free of disability for the eu-28 population (dfle of 62 years) (see table A3.1 in the appendix to this chapter (www.scp.nl)). Between 1995 and 2012, there was a decreasing trend in the share of disability-free life years in most countries, meaning that recently relatively more years are spent in disability. On the other hand, we see that differences between countries are reducing; this may indicate that the gap between countries is narrowing over time. In de eu-28, women are expected to live more years with disability than men.

Thus, despite the inequality in overall life expectancy in favour of women, the time spent free from disability is almost equal for men and women.