Corona depresses life expectancy similar to World War II

In some countries the progress of the past few years has been ruined in a short time, report researchers from the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford in the “International Journal of Epidemiology”. The decline in men was therefore greater than in women.

For the study, the scientists examined data from 29 countries, most of them from Europe, including Germany, as well as Chile and the USA. In 2020, life expectancy fell in 27 of these countries and by at least half a year in 22 countries. “In Western European countries such as Spain, England and Wales, Italy, Belgium, such a decline in life expectancy in a single year at the time of birth was last observed during World War II,” said co-author José Manuel Aburto.

The life expectancy of men fell the most in the US – 2.2 years compared to 2019. In the US, the rise in working-age mortality under 60 is particularly noteworthy, said co-author Ridhi Kashyap. In most European countries, on the other hand, the mortality rate among the over 60-year-olds has increased in particular. A study in the British Medical Journal in June pointed to the drastically reduced life expectancy in the USA.

Life expectancy is the age a newborn baby is likely to reach if the death rate continues to develop as it did when it was born. According to the Federal Statistical Office, life expectancy in Germany in August 2021 was 78.6 years for boys and 83.4 years for girls. It was also known that in 2020 mortality increased compared to 2019, especially for men and women over the age of 75.