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ARCHIVED - Life expectancy in Spain falls by almost a year and a half
This decrease in life expectancy in Spain due to coronavirus is the highest since the Second World War
A new study published by the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Sciences of the University of Oxford on Monday September 27 shows that life expectancy in Spain fell by an average of 1.41 years in 2020 compared with pre-pandemic 2019. In fact, in 27 of the 29 countries evaluated, which covered most of Europe, the United States and Chile, a drastic decline was observed last year.
Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the research indicates that women from 15 countries and men from 10 countries actually had a lower life expectancy at birth than in 2015, a year in which the numbers were already down due to a particularly devastating flu season.
Women fare worse than men in Spain, with the average female expected to live 1.442 fewer years compared to 1.383 for men, with the most affected age group being women under the age of 30 (1.53 years less than before Covid).
Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a catastrophic loss of life, but according to the co-author of the study, José Manuel Aburto, Western European countries such as Spain, England and Wales haven’t seen such as drastic drop in life expectancy in a single year since the Second World War.
Interestingly, Mr Aburto pointed out that the large declines in life expectancy seen in the US can be explained in part by the dramatic increase in the mortality of people of working age during 2020, which was far higher than in most of Europe, where deaths in people aged over 60 contributed more significantly.
While the experts agree that the most influential factor for the difference in the data across 2019 and 2020 is the official death toll caused by Covid, the team agrees that more detailed information is needed from a broader range of countries, particularly low- and middle-income nations, in order to better understand the true impact of the pandemic.
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