In 2024, life expectancy at birth in the EU was 81.5 years, marking an increase of 0.1 year compared to 2023. Life expectancy fell in 2020 (80.4 years) and 2021 (80.1 years) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since recovered and reached levels higher than in 2019 (81.3 years).
For Albania, Eurostat reports data for 2022, when life expectancy at birth was 79.1 years. But other INSTAT data show that in Albania too the indicator has been increasing, reaching around 80 years in 2024. Albanian women are expected to live an average of 82.5 years and men 78.6 years, according to the latest data for 2024.
At these levels, around 79-80 years old, Albanians live less than the EU average and many Western and Northern European countries, but longer than the region, leaving behind Montenegrins (77.6) and Serbs (76.2), with the latter being the penultimate in Europe, leaving behind only Bulgarians (75.8). Data for Kosovo and North Macedonia are missing.
Eurostat data shows that the North of Albania tends to live the shortest, with the highest life expectancy. According to 2022 data, the North of Albania is expected to live an average of 79.2 years, compared to 80.7 years in the center and 80.77 in the south. Lower access to health services is considered to be one of the main reasons for the difference.
Life expectancy at birth indicates how many years, on average, a person born in a given year is expected to live, based on current mortality rates.
Women live longer than men
In 2024, life expectancy at birth for women in the EU reached 84.1 years (0.1 year more than in 2023), while for men it was 78.9 years (+0.2 years). This shows that women are expected to live 5.2 years longer than men.
This gap varies significantly across EU countries. In Latvia, women are expected to live 9.8 years longer than men, followed by Lithuania (8.6 years) and Estonia (8.4 years). The smallest gender gap was recorded in the Netherlands (2.8 years), Sweden (3.1 years) and Ireland (3.4 years). In Albania, the gap is lower than the EU average, at 3.9 years, according to Eurostat data.
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According to Eurostat, Western and Nordic European countries have significantly higher life expectancies compared to Eastern European countries.
Switzerland tops the list with 84.3 years, followed by Liechtenstein (84.2 years) and Spain (84 years). Other countries with very high life expectancies are Sweden (83.8 years), Italy (83.7 years) and Cyprus (83.5 years).
At the other end of the scale, the lowest life expectancy on the continent is recorded mainly in Eastern and Southeastern European countries. Bulgaria has the lowest level at 75.8 years, followed by Serbia (76.2 years), Latvia (76.4 years), Romania (76.5 years) and Hungary (76.8 years).
At the regional level, four regions achieved a life expectancy at birth of 85 years or more: the Spanish region of Comunidad de Madrid, with 85.7 years, as well as the Italian regions of
Provincia Autonoma di Trento and Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen and the Swedish capital region Stockholm, all with 85.0 years.
On the other hand, among the five EU regions with the lowest life expectancy in the east, three are located in Bulgaria: Severozapaden (73.9 years), Severen tsentralen (74.9 years) and Severoiztochen (75.4 years). The other two are Mayotte in France (74.5 years) and Észak-Magyarország in Hungary (75.1 years)./Monitor/
