According to new data, Maltese men have the highest life expectancies at birth – estimated to be around 81.8 in terms of age.
This was was followed by Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden (all at 81.7), whereas Latvia and Bulgaria registered the lowest expectancies at 70.8 and 72.0 respectively.
Data for 2023 show that in the EU, life expectancy at birth for women was 84.2 years compared to 78.9 years for men, a difference of 5.3 years. This trend was consistent across all EU countries.
The largest differences were in Latvia (10.0 years; women 80.8 and men 70.8) and Lithuania (9.2 years; women 81.7 and men 72.5). The smallest differences were in the Netherlands (2.9 years; women 83.4 and men 80.5) and Sweden (3.3 years; women 85.0 and men 81.7).
Compared to 20 years earlier, the gender gap in life expectancy at birth in the EU was 6.4 years in 2003 (women 80.8 and men 74.4), which is 1.1 years more than in 2023. In 2003, the highest differences were in Lithuania (11.3 years; women 77.7 and men 66.4) and Estonia (10.8 years; women 77.2 and men 66.4), while the lowest were in Cyprus (4.4 years; women 81.2 and men 76.8) and Malta (4.4 years; women 80.8 and men 76.4).
Between 2003 and 2023, the gender gap in life expectancy at birth decreased in 25 EU countries, with the biggest decreases in Luxembourg (−2.6 years; from 6.0 to 3.4) and Lithuania (−2.1 years; from 11.3 to 9.2).
The only increases were in Bulgaria (0.6 years; from 7.0 to 7.6) and Romania (0.2 years; from 7.4 to 7.6).
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