One of the most pressing issues on the global agenda is population aging. In this regard, it is especially interesting to see the ranking of European countries with the highest life expectancy. Spoiler: of course, Switzerland is in the ranking, but not in first place.

As Euronews writes, the area of life expectancy is becoming one of the leading issues in European policy, driven by the challenge of population aging.
Eurostat data for 2021 reports an average life expectancy of 80.1 years for Europeans. It is important to emphasize that generalizing this indicator to the entire continent is a poor approach, as the study results indicate significant differences between different regions of continental Europe, where life expectancy ranges from 69 to 85 years.

Among the 242 regions classified according to NUTS 2 (one of the 5 categories of the EU territorial division system), the lowest rate is recorded among residents of the Bulgarian North-West (69.7 years), while in Spanish Madrid it reaches 85.4 years.

The standard of living, quality of education, medical services and access to them greatly influence this indicator. Interestingly, women's life expectancy exceeds men's by 5.7 years, and the highest rates are recorded in Liechtenstein (84.4 years), Switzerland (83.9 years), Spain (83.3 years) and Finland (83. 2 years). It’s not for nothing that real estate in Switzerland is in such demand among wealthy investors.

Until 2019, life expectancy in Europe increased at a steady pace and reached 81.3 years. However, subsequent years have seen record declines, often attributed to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 figures (80.1 years) were lower than in 2020 (80.4 years).

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Experts predict a change from the current recession to an upturn, given the decrease in infant mortality and a gradual increase in living standards. These trends are confirmed by statistics, where the leadership is occupied by countries with a high Human Development Index.

What are the key takeaways from the data presented? The World Health Organization defines life expectancy as the average number of years a person can live at birth, taking into account many factors including time, region and the presence of diseases. This indicator takes into account the age-sex mortality rates prevailing at the time of birth in a particular year in a given country, territory or area. This indicator is widely recognized as an essential tool for monitoring the well-being of society and is critical for the development of public policy.

France, for example, is actively addressing the problem of increasing life expectancy and the associated burden on the social security and healthcare systems. At the beginning of this year, the French government introduced a series of reforms aimed at increasing the retirement age and encouraging longer working hours, which sparked large-scale protests across the country. Keep in mind that the challenge of an aging population is relevant not only to France, where life expectancy is not the highest, but also to all of Europe, where life expectancy has been rising rapidly for decades.

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