Life expectancy at birth in Malta stood at 82.9 years in 2021, Eurostat figures show.

The statistical office of the European Union said that this figure shows a return to the same expectancy that Malta had in 2019, after it had dipped to 82.3 years in 2020.

As for the EU as a whole, life expectancy at birth has been increasing over the past decade with official statistics revealing that life expectancy has risen, on average, by more than two years per decade since the 1960s.However, Eurostat said, the latest available data suggests that life expectancy stalled or even declined in several EU Member States. “Some Member States (mostly in Western Europe) saw their life expectancy rebound towards pre-Covid levels, while others (mostly in Eastern Europe) suffered the impact of the pandemic later and fully in 2021, therefore any rebound is yet to be reflected in the data.”

“According to preliminary 2021 data, the Covid-19 pandemic that started in 2020 has had a negative effect with life expectancy at birth declining in almost half the EU Member States in 2021. The largest decreases have been estimated in Slovakia and Bulgaria (-2.2 years compared with 2020), followed by Latvia (-2.1) and Estonia (-2.0).”

“Compared with the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the overall effect on life expectancies is still negative in all EU Member States except Luxembourg (+0.1), Malta and Sweden (same level in 2019 and 2021). In some cases, life expectancies have further worsened in 2021, leading to an estimated overall loss of more than 2 years. The largest decreases compared with 2019 were registered in Bulgaria (-3.7), Slovakia (-3.0), and Romania (-2.7).”