Malta now has the highest life expectancy among EU countries even though an overall decline was registered, especially at the start of 2020.

Eurostat issued the figures that defines a person’s life expectancy as the average number of years a child would live if subjected to current mortality conditions for the duration of their life. Malta’s 2020 numbers rose four places when compared to those of 2019, even though mortality rates towards the end spiked due to COVID-19.

The average length of life decreased from 82.9 in 2019 to 82.6 in 2020 which was a much smaller decline compared to other countries’ stats. According to the recent figures, women are expected to live an average of four years longer than men with females’ life expectancy sitting at 84.6 while that of males is at 80.4.

Previous chart toppers Spain, Italy, Sweden and France appear to have been hit harder this year supposedly by the effects of COVID-19. These four countries all recorded declines of over 0.7 years. This decline trend was seen across all member states except for Finland, Denmark, Latvia and Cyprus.

Apart from ranking first in the EU stats, Malta also rose five places and now ranks fourth in the life expectancy across all of Europe chart. The countries that boast the longest average life spans are ones that are non-EU member states: Norway (83.3 years), Switzerland (83.2) and Iceland (83.1).