2023-06-28 09:35:33
Illustrative photo. Canva
Healthy life expectancy in Estonia has risen to a record high, the press service of Statistics Estonia told BNS on Wednesday, according to which, in 2022, life expectancy at birth in Estonia was 78.1 years.
Life expectancy for men in Estonia was 73.6 years and for women 82.3 years. Healthy men live 57.9 years, women – 60.6 years.
Since the restoration of independence, life expectancy was at its lowest point in 1994, at 66.5 years. Between 1995 and 2019, life expectancy tended to increase, reaching 78.8 years by 2019. This was followed by two years of a pandemic, when, due to high mortality, life expectancy fell to the level of 2014 (77.2).
“After a slight decline in the previous two years, life expectancy has begun to rise again and has now reached pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, life expectancy was similar to that in 2017: then it was 78.2 years,” said Terje Trasberg, Lead Analyst at the Department of Statistics.
Women’s life expectancy is 8.7 years longer than men’s. “In 1990-2009, life expectancy for men was ten years shorter than for women. Since 2010, this difference has decreased, and in 2019 it was 8.4 years,” Trasberg explained. The life expectancy of the male population of Estonia today has reached the same level as that of women in 1993.
Compared to 2021, healthy life years have increased by 2.7 years: never before has this figure reached such a high level. Based on 2022 data, men live healthy for 57.9 years and women for 60.6 years. “In terms of gender, the difference in healthy life years is smaller than in life expectancy – only 2.7 years in favor of women. Thus, although the life expectancy of men is shorter, the share of life without health restrictions is higher for Estonian men than for women,” Trasberg said. Men live healthy 78.7% of their lives, and women 73.6%.
Life expectancy is higher in urban settlement areas, among the population of Estonian nationality and those with a higher level of education. Life expectancy varies most across levels of education, with 81.8 years for those with a tertiary education and more than ten years less for those with a basic education (71). Especially low life expectancy is observed among men with basic education (67.6). “Both life expectancy and healthy life years are affected by the environment, the availability of health services, occupational safety and health awareness. As expected, life expectancy for men is shorter because they are more risk-averse and are more likely to be employed in physically demanding and hazardous occupations,” Trasberg explained.
In comparison of counties, the highest life expectancy is observed in Harju and Tartu counties (78.7 and 79.2 years respectively), the lowest is in Ida-Viru and Võru counties (74.6 years and 76 years, respectively). In 2019, when life expectancy in Estonia reached its highest level since the restoration of independence, it was also higher than the current figure in all counties. “Back then, life expectancy in Tallinn reached 80.3 years, which is the closest to the European average,” Trasberg said.
Average life expectancy in Europe as of 2021* was 80.1 years. Life expectancy was highest in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Spain (84.4; 83.9 and 83.3 respectively); the lowest is in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia (71.4; 72.8 and 72.8, respectively).
As in Estonia, life expectancy in 2021 has fallen in almost half of the European countries. At the same time, the largest decrease was observed in Latvia and Slovakia (by 2.4 years in both countries, by 1.7 years in Estonia).
Life expectancy is below the European average in all the Baltic countries, but among the three countries it is highest in Estonia (77.2), followed by Lithuania (74.2) and Latvia (73.1). In neighboring Finland, life expectancy in 2021 was 81.9 years, 4.7 years more than in Estonia.
The Baltic countries stand out from other European countries with a greater difference in life expectancy between men and women. In Estonia women live 8.7 years longer than men, in Lithuania the difference is 9.3 years and in Latvia 9.8 years. The average difference in life expectancy between men and women across Europe is 5.7 years. In the Netherlands, Norway and Iceland, the corresponding figures remain between 3.3 and 2.8 years.
In Europe, in terms of years of healthy life in 2021, Malta occupied the first place (68.7 years). In last place was Latvia, where the average number of years of healthy life is 53.8 years. In the penultimate place in 2021 was Estonia, where the years of healthy life were 56.5 years.
“An increase of 2.7 years in healthy life years and a slowly but again growing life expectancy give reason to hope that after the publication of data for 2022 by all European countries, our position relative to the European average will improve,” — keeps a positive attitude Terje Trasberg.
Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if the mortality rates characteristic of the period under consideration do not change. Healthy life years remaining is the average number of years a person is likely to live without restriction in activities of daily living if mortality and health outcomes remain constant. In calculating this indicator, one of the components is the information obtained through the survey on the extent to which the respondents had restrictions in daily activities due to any health problems during the last six months. Only those answers are taken into account in which the respondent answered that he had no restrictions due to health problems.
The main representative of public interest in the statistical work “Population” and “Social Research in Estonia” is the Ministry of Social Affairs, on whose behalf the Statistics Department analyzes the data for these statistical work.
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