In the wake of the corona pandemic, according to a study, life expectancy in many countries has fallen as sharply as it has not in Western Europe since the Second World War.
In some countries, the progress of the past few years has been ruined in a short time, report researchers from the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science at Oxford University in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
The decline in men was therefore greater than in women.
For the study, the scientists examined data from 29 countries, most of them from Europe, including Germany, as well as from Chile and the USA.
In 2020, life expectancy fell in 27 of these countries and by at least half a year in 22 countries.
"In Western European countries such as Spain, England and Wales, Italy, Belgium, such a decrease in life expectancy in a single year at the time of birth was last observed during World War II," said co-author José Manuel Aburto.
Americans particularly affected
Male life expectancy fell the most in the United States - 2.2 years compared to 2019. In the United States, the rise in working-age mortality under 60 is particularly noteworthy, said co-author Ridhi Kashyap.
In most European countries, on the other hand, the mortality rate among the over 60-year-olds has increased in particular.
In June, a study in the British Medical Journal pointed to the drastically reduced life expectancy in the USA.
Life expectancy is the age a newborn baby is likely to reach if the death rate continues to develop as it did when it was born.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, life expectancy in Germany in August 2021 was 78.6 years for boys and 83.4 years for girls.
It was also known that in 2020 mortality increased compared to 2019, especially for men and women over the age of 75.