Life expectancy at birth in the EU countries
Topic: Population and health
Life expectancy at birth is 8.2 years longer in Spain than in Bulgaria.
In 2024, a child born in the EU could expect to live 81.5 years on average. That is how long it would live if, at every age, its risk of dying were the same as for people of that age in that year. It is not the average age of those who died that year, which also depends on how many old people live in a country.
Hungary's statistical office (KSH) publishes its own life expectancy figures, which differ from Eurostat's. For 2024 it gives 73.6 years for men and 79.6 years for women in Hungary. In Budapest it gives 74.9 years for men and 80.6 years for women.
These figures are not from Eurostat. Sources: HVG, 2025-09-18 (KSH) (retrieved 31 October 2026)
- Figures for:
- 2024.
- Covers:
- the whole year.
- New data:
- once a year.
- Dataset updated:
- 25 September 2026.
Published 31 October 2026, updated 6 November 2026
The ranking
Life expectancy at birth, years
2024Over time
Life expectancy at birth in the EU, years
2014–2024Between 2014 and 2024, life expectancy rose in 27 countries.
Life expectancy at birth, years
2014 and 2024 · ranked by 2024Women and men
Among men, the gap between countries was wider. It ranged from 71.4 years in Latvia to 82.3 years in Sweden. The gap was 10.9 years.
Among women, the gap between countries was much narrower than among men. Spain was the highest, at 86.5 years, and Bulgaria the lowest, at 79.5 years. The gap between Spain and Bulgaria was 7.0 years.
Life expectancy at birth: men and women, years
2024| Everyone | Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest | 75.8 yearsBulgaria | 71.4 yearsLatvia | 79.5 yearsBulgaria |
| Highest | 84.0 yearsSpain | 82.3 yearsSweden | 86.5 yearsSpain |
| Highest − lowest | 8.2 years | 10.9 years | 7.0 years |
About the data
Life expectancy at a given age shows how many more years a person of that age would live on average if, at every age for the rest of their life, the death rates of that year held. Life expectancy at birth is that of a newborn.
Eurostat: “Life expectancy at certain ages represents the mean number of years still to be lived by a person who has reached a certain exact age, if subjected throughout the rest of his or her life to the current mortality conditions (age-specific probabilities of dying).” (source)
Deaths and population data reported by the national statistical institutes, from civil and population registers. Eurostat computes the life tables.
How to read these numbers
How it is measured
Life expectancy is calculated from the deaths of a single year. It is not a forecast of how long people born that year will actually live. It assumes that the mortality conditions of that year stay the same for the rest of a person's life.
A gap between women and men worked out from the published values, which have one decimal, can differ by a tenth of a year from the gap Eurostat publishes.
Breaks in the series
A break in the series (flag b) means that a value is not fully comparable with the years before it. This concerns Czechia (2021), Germany (2022–2023), Italy (2019), Luxembourg (2016–2017), Poland (2020–2021), Romania (2015–2016) and the EU (2015–2017, 2019–2023).
Provisional figures
A provisional value (flag p) may still be revised. This concerns France (2024), Poland (2024) and the EU (2020–2024).
Estimates
A value with flag e is an estimate, not measured or counted in full. This concerns Poland (2024), Romania (2014, 2024) and the EU (2014, 2016–2024).
Sources and data
Eurostat, Life expectancy by age and sex (demo_mlexpec). Data updated 25 September 2026, retrieved 3 November 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
Eurostat metadata · Eurostat methodology
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/demo_mlexpec?format=JSON&lang=en&age=Y_LT1&freq=A&geo=AT&geo=BE&geo=BG&geo=CY&geo=CZ&geo=DE&geo=DK&geo=EE&geo=EL&geo=ES&geo=EU27_2020&geo=FI&geo=FR&geo=HR&geo=HU&geo=IE&geo=IT&geo=LT&geo=LU&geo=LV&geo=MT&geo=NL&geo=PL&geo=PT&geo=RO&geo=SE&geo=SI&geo=SK&sex=T&unit=YRRelated stories
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Healthy life years in the EU countries
A newborn in Italy can expect 73.4 years of life without being limited in usual activities by a health problem, against 52.5 years in Latvia (2024)
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Unmet needs for medical care in the EU
In Greece, 11.5% of people aged 16 or over went without medical care they needed because of the cost, the distance or a waiting list, against 0.1% in Cyprus and Malta (2025)
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Excess mortality in the EU countries
11.1% fewer people died in Lithuania than on average in 2016–2019, and 18.0% more in Luxembourg (May 2026)
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The population of the EU countries in 2100
In Eurostat's baseline projection, the population of Latvia would fall by 33.94%, and that of Luxembourg would grow by 36.43% (2025–2100)