Two new studies uncover the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global life expectancy (LE), one showing substantial and sustained LE losses in the United States and Eastern Europe, and the other finding a link between LE at 60 years of age before the pandemic and excess deaths amid COVID-19 only in countries with older populations.Lifespan fell further in 2021 in 12 nationsIn the first study, a team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany and the University of Oxford used the Short-Term Mortality Fluctuations Database to examine all-cause mortality and LE changes in 29 countries, including the United States, most of Europe, and Chile, since 2019.
The research was published this week in Nature Human Behaviour.Eight of the 29 countries saw substantial rebounds from 2020 LE losses, including Belgium (+10.8 months), Switzerland (+7.7), Spain (+7.6), France (+5.0), England and Wales (+2.1), Italy (+5.1), Sweden (+7.5), and Slovenia (+3.1).But on top of the 2020 losses, LE fell further in 2021 in 12 countries: Bulgaria (−25.1 months), Chile (−8.0), the Czech Republic (−10.4), Germany (−3.1), Estonia (−21.5), Greece (−12.4), Croatia (−11.6), Hungary (−16.4), Lithuania (−7.9), Poland (−12.1), Slovakia (−23.9), and the United States (−2.7).
In Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2021, LE showed no rebound from 2020.In 2021, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Sweden all rebounded completely from substantial 2020 losses.
Three countries, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, saw no LE loss in 2020, but only Norway had a significantly higher LE in 2021 than in 2019.All countries saw lower-than-expected LE in 2021, as prepandemic trends continued.