Eurostat: ‘EU average life expectancy reaches 81.7 years’; Italy tops longevity ranking

Brussels – Europeans are older, but with longer lives ahead of them. Data collected by Eurostat for 2024 show that life expectancy for EU citizens was 81.7 years, the highest figure since the European statistics agency started collecting the data. Italians live the longest, around 84 years, on a par with Swedes and Spaniards.

The European figure is a real record when one considers that, twenty years ago, Europeans had a life expectancy that was three years shorter. European countries always come out on top, even when compared with the most developed states in the world. In the United States, people live the shortest, at around 79.6 years, while in China, the average lifespan is 78.4 years, and in Russia, it is only 72.8 years. The place in the world where people live the longest, however, remains Japan, with an average of around 85 years.

Despite the encouraging data, significant disparities persist in the Union. Eastern European countries remain those where people live the shortest lives: Bulgaria is at the bottom of the ranking, with an average life expectancy of 75.9 years, but Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and Hungary also have an average age well below eighty. It should be emphasised, however, that it is precisely these states that have experienced the most significant increase in recent years. Since joining the Union in 2004, Lithuania has increased life expectancy by more than five years.

The only two-year period in which life expectancy declined in Europe was 2020-2021 due to the pandemic.

In a context of such widespread longevity, it is natural to raise the average age. The Union, in recent years, has seen this figure rise, becoming one of the oldest regions on the planet. On average, Europeans are 44.7 years old, far more than Americans (38.5) and Chinese (40.1).

An equally high birth rate has not compensated for the longevity of Europeans. Italy, for example, is the oldest country in the EU, with a population that is on average 48.7 years old. According to some Eurostat estimates, by 2050, more than 30 percent of EU inhabitants will be over 65, creating difficulties in the labor market and burdening the social security system. An issue that states and the Commission should soon address in all its complexity.