Eurostat: Women continue to outlive men in Cyprus

In 2021, life expectancy at birth was 81.3 years in Cyprus and 80.1 years in the EU according to data published by Eurostat.

Life expectancy at birth in 2019 reached 82.3 years in Cyprus (81.3 years in the EU). In 2020, life expectancy in Cyprus remained essentially unchanged at 82.4 years and fell to 80.4 in the EU (-0.9 years). In 2021 life expectancy decreased to 81.3 years in Cyprus (-1.1) and further decreased to 80.1 years in the EU (-0.3), probably as a result of the sudden increase in mortality because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Life expectancy for women (83.4 in Cyprus, 82.9 in the EU) continued to be higher than for men (79.2 in Cyprus, 77.2 in the EU) in 2021, with both registering further decreases following a larger drop from 2019 to 2020.

Compared with 2020, life expectancy for both women and men decreased by 0.6 years for men and by 1 year for women in Cyprus, and by 0.3 years for both in the EU.

Between 2002 (the first year for which life expectancy data became available for all EU members) and 2021, life expectancy at birth in the EU increased by 2.5 years, from 77.6 to 80.1 years; the increase was 2.0 years for women and 2.9 years for men.

In Cyprus, life expectancy increased by 2.6 years between 2002 and 2021 (from 78.7 to 81.3 years); the increase was 2.4 for women and 2.8 years for men.

At the country level, the highest life expectancy at birth was recorded in Spain (83.3 years), Sweden (83.1 years), Luxembourg and Italy (both 82.7 years), while the lowest was in Bulgaria (71.4 years), Romania (72.8 years) and Latvia (73.1 years).

In 2021, the regions in the EU (NUTS 2 level) with the highest levels of life expectancy at birth were located in Spain, Italy and France. Cyprus is considered a single region on NUTS 1, 2 and 3 levels due to population.

The EU region with the highest life expectancy at birth was Madrid (85.4 years), followed by Navarre (84.8 years) and the Finnish region of Åland Islands (84.6 years). Castile and Leon and the Autonomous Province of Trento came next with 84.3 and 84.2 years, respectively, and then Stockholm (84.1 years) with another three Spanish regions: Cantabria and Basque Country (both 84.0 years) and Galicia (83.9 years). The top 10 also includes Île-de-France and Rhône-Alpes in France and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano in Italy, all with 83.8 years.

On the other hand, the EU regions with the lowest life expectancy at birth were all in Bulgaria: North-West (69.7), North-Central (70.4), South-East (71.0) and North-East (71.2).

These regions were followed by Mayotte (71.5) in France, North-East (72.0) and South-East (72.1) in Romania, North Hungary (72.1) and the Bulgarian regions of South-West (72.1) and South-Central (72.2).