Life expectancy at birth in the EU was estimated at 80.9 years in 2017 — 0.1 years lower than 2016, according to data out Thursday from Eurostat.
For women, life expectancy was 83.5 years — 0.1 year lower than 2016. For men, it was 78.3 years, or 0.1 years higher.
Life expectancy decreased in 11 EU countries, compared with 2016. Luxembourg saw the biggest fall, of 0.6 years (from 82.7 to 82.1 years), with women experiencing the biggest decline: a one year fall, versus 0.2 years for men. Cyprus saw the next biggest fall, of half a year, to 82.2 years.
Eleven countries showed an increase in life expectancy, from 0.9 years in Lithuania to 0.1 years in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the U.K. Six countries were stable.
Since records began in 2002, life expectancy in the EU28 has increased by 3.2 years, from 77.7 to 80.9 years; 2.6 years for women and 3.8 years for men.
In 2017, 5.3 million people died in the EU — the highest annual number of over the previous five decades.
Eurostat said in a statement it is not possible to say if the most recent fall in life expectancy is temporary or will continue in the following years.
In all EU countries, life expectancy at birth is higher for women than for men, although the size of the gap varies. The largest differences are in Latvia (9.9 years), Lithuania (9.8 years) and Estonia (8.8 years). The smallest are in Sweden (3.3 years) and the Netherlands (3.2 years).
The difference between the highest and lowest life expectancies among EU countries is 11 years for men and 7.7 years for women. For men, the lowest life expectancy was recorded in Latvia (69.8 years) and the highest in both Italy and Sweden (80.8 years). For women, the range was from a low of 78.4 years in Bulgaria to a high of 86.1 years in Spain.