This statistic shows the average life expectancy in Europe for those born in 2024, by gender and region. The average life expectancy in Western Europe was 79 years for males and 84 years for females in 2024. Additional information on European life expectancy The difference in life expectancy seen between men and women across all European regions is in line with the global trends of women outliving men, on average. The average life expectancy at birth worldwide by income group shows that the gender life expectancy gap is not only a consistent trend across countries, but also income groups. Moreover, the higher life expectancy for those in high income groups may help to explain the lower average life expectancy for those born in Eastern Europe where average incomes are generally lower than other European regions. Although income and length of life are not directly correlated, higher income individuals are generally able to afford access to superior nutrition and healthcare as well as having leisure time for exercise. That said, current trends in the increases in life expectancy worldwide by country between 1970 and 2017 suggest economic growth will lead to larger increases in life expectancy. Those increases are less likely to occur to such a degree in the more developed regions of Europe where Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Iceland and Austria all rank in the top 20 countries with the highest life expectancy.

As of 2023, the countries with the highest life expectancy included Switzerland, Japan, and Spain. As of that time, a new-born child in Switzerland could expect to live an average of **** years. Around the world, females consistently have a higher average life expectancy than males, with females in Europe expected to live an average of *** years longer than males on this continent. Increases in life expectancy The overall average life expectancy in OECD countries increased by **** years from 1970 to 2019. The countries that saw the largest increases included Turkey, India, and South Korea. The life expectancy at birth in Turkey increased an astonishing 24.4 years over this period. The countries with the lowest life expectancy worldwide as of 2022 were Chad, Lesotho, and Nigeria, where a newborn could be expected to live an average of ** years. Life expectancy in the U.S. The life expectancy in the United States was ***** years as of 2023. Shockingly, the life expectancy in the United States has decreased in recent years, while it continues to increase in other similarly developed countries. The COVID-19 pandemic and increasing rates of suicide and drug overdose deaths from the opioid epidemic have been cited as reasons for this decrease.

Data Source

The data source is Eurostat.

Content

The data contains life expectancy in Europe grouped by Country (or other, like group of countries), Age, Sex, and Time.

Data transformation

From the initial format in TSV format, we process the data using the notebook Life expectancy in Europe - Convert TSV to CSV to convert it in csv format and add years as a new column (by pivoting the time list of columns). The resulting dataset has the following columns: * unit - the unit used for the values
* sex * geo - geography - countries in EU or groups of countries from EU
* year
* value - the life expectancy for the current sex type, geography and year

Inspiration

Use this dataset to explore info about life expectancy in Europe's countries.

Graph and download economic data for Life Expectancy at Birth, Total for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia (SPDYNLE00INECA) from 1960 to 2023 about Central Asia, life expectancy, life, birth, and Europe.

In 2024, life expectancy at birth in Europe was 79 years, compared with the low of 62.8 in 1950 and 1951. During this time period, life expectancy increased fastest between the 1950s and mid 1960s, with the rate of improvement slowing since then.

This European Census dataset covers data on population, fertility, migration, birth and death rates as well as life expectancy in the recent years or projected to 2050.

Eurostat’s annual data collections on demographic statistics are structured as follows:

NOWCAST: Annual data collection on provisional monthly data on live births and deaths covering at least six months of the reference year (Article 4.3 of the Commission implementing regulation (EU) No 205/2014).

DEMOBAL (Demographic balance): Annual data collection on provisional data on population, total live births and total deaths at national level (Article 4.1 of the Commission implementing regulation (EU) No 205/2014).

POPSTAT (Population Statistics): The most in-depth annual national and regional demographic and migration data collection. The data relate to populations, births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, marriages and divorces, and is broken down into several categories (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007).

The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary demographic data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate - legal acts and other agreements’.

The completeness of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and completeness of information provided by the national statistical institutes. For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate - legal acts and other agreements’.

The following statistics on deaths are collected from the National Statistical Institutes:

• Deaths by month of occurrence
• Deaths by age, year of birth, sex and by:
  • Region (NUTS 2) of residence;
  • Region (NUTS 3) of residence;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Legal marital status;
  • Educational attainment (ISCED 2011).
• Infant deaths by age and sex;
• Infant deaths by parents' level of educational attainment (ISCED);
• Late foetal deaths by mother's age.

Statistics on mortality: based on the different breakdowns of data on deaths received, Eurostat produces the following:

• Statistics available in the online table Population change - Demographic balance and crude rates at national level (demo_gind):
  • Natural change of population, crude death rate.
• Statistics available in the online table Infant mortality rates (demo_find):
  • Infant mortality rate;
  • Neonatal mortality rate;
  • Early neonatal mortality rate;
  • Late foetal mortality rate;
  • Perinatal mortality rate.
• Life table (demo_mlifetable);
• Life expectancy by age and sex (demo_mlexpec);
• Life expectancy by age, sex and educational attainment (ISCED 2011) (demo_mlexpecedu).

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/demo_r_gind3_esms.htm" target="_self">Information about statistics on deaths by NUTS regions.

The average for 2023 based on 27 countries was 80.59 years. The highest value was in Spain: 83.88 years and the lowest value was in Latvia: 75.68 years. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Context

Data containing life expectancy at birth by sex and geography in Europe. Source is https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database (official European Data Source). Data is downloaded.

Content

Original data

The original data (tps00208.tsv) is provided in TSV (tab delimited) format. The dataset life expectancy at birth by sex and geography in Europe (yearly data). The time unit used are years. Geography is at country level (in Europe) or aggregated on 2 indicators for Europe (EU27_2020 & EU28). Sex is F or M. Statistical indicator is LE_0, meaning life expectancy at birth (0 years old).

Transformed data

The transformed data (life_expectancy_at_birth.csv) is in csv format. The temporal data was pivoted using Starter Kernel: Life Expectancy in Europe at Birth Kernel.

How to

The original data has the temporal information given as columns (per year). In order to further use this data, it would be more easy to pivot first these columns to get instead date/value pairs. This pivot operation, using melt from pandas is done in the starter kernel: * Starter Kernel: Life Expectancy in Europe at Birth; we convert the year to an integer. Just run this Kernel to put the data in csv format, with yearly data pivoted.

Acknowledgements

All merit for data collection, curation, and initial publishing goes to Eurostat.

Inspiration

You can use this data for various demographic, public health, social aspects, combining with alternative data from Kaggle and other sources.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Europe. The data is about countries.

The average for 2022 based on 44 countries was 81.91 years. The highest value was in Spain: 85.9 years and the lowest value was in Moldova: 73.32 years. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Historical dataset showing European Union life expectancy by year from 1960 to 2023.

This horizontal bar chart displays life expectancy at birth (year) by region using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Europe. The data is about countries.

In 2020, France had the highest life expectancy at age 65 among European countries, at 21.2 years, followed by Iceland at 21.1 and Norway at 21. Bulgaria had the lowest life expectancy at 65, of 15.2 years, with Romania and Georgia both having 15.7 years.

Life Expectancy at Birth, Total for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia was 74.79987 Number of Years in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, Life Expectancy at Birth, Total for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia reached a record high of 74.79987 in January of 2023 and a record low of 54.67285 in January of 1950. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Life Expectancy at Birth, Total for Developing Countries in Europe and Central Asia - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on November of 2025.

In 2024, Albania was the EU candidate country with the highest life expectancy at birth, at 80 years. On the contrary, Moldova was the candidate country with the lowest life expectancy, with a person only expected to live until the age of **.

This dataset is about countries per year in Western Europe. It has 576 rows. It features 4 columns: country, life expectancy at birth, and male population.

In 2024, the average life expectancy in the world was 71 years for men and 76 years for women. The lowest life expectancies were found in Africa, while Oceania and Europe had the highest. What is life expectancy?Life expectancy is defined as a statistical measure of how long a person may live, based on demographic factors such as gender, current age, and most importantly the year of their birth. The most commonly used measure of life expectancy is life expectancy at birth or at age zero. The calculation is based on the assumption that mortality rates at each age were to remain constant in the future. Life expectancy has changed drastically over time, especially during the past 200 years. In the early 20th century, the average life expectancy at birth in the developed world stood at 31 years. It has grown to an average of 70 and 75 years for males and females respectively, and is expected to keep on growing with advances in medical treatment and living standards continuing. Highest and lowest life expectancy worldwide Life expectancy still varies greatly between different regions and countries of the world. The biggest impact on life expectancy is the quality of public health, medical care, and diet. As of 2022, the countries with the highest life expectancy were Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Australia, all at 84–83 years. Most of the countries with the lowest life expectancy are mostly African countries. The ranking was led by the Chad, Nigeria, and Lesotho with 53–54 years.

Mean number of years that a newborn child can expect to live if subjected throughout his life to the current mortality conditions (probabilities of dying at each age).

The purpose of this data package is to offer essential population statistics about European countries covering static and dynamic demographical indicators. The two current sources of information are the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), from Austria and the U.K. Office for National Statistics.