Düsseldorf/Wiesbaden (dpa/lnw) – In North Rhine-Westphalia, average life expectancy has fallen during the corona pandemic. According to calculations by the Federal Institute for Population Research, in 2021 it was 0.38 years lower for newborn boys and 0.28 years lower for newborn girls than it was before the pandemic. The life expectancy determined relates to the people born in the corresponding year. In 2019, the average value in NRW for boys was 78.39 years and for girls 82.95 years, as the Federal Institute announced on Wednesday in Wiesbaden. Two years later it was 78.01 years for boys and 82.67 years for girls.
Life expectancy calculates the average length of life that newborns would live if the age-specific mortality rates recorded in one year were held constant over the next 115 years.
Life expectancy in Germany fell between 2019 and 2021 by 0.6 years for boys to 78.11 years and for girls by 0.37 years to 83.12 years, as the calculations show. Before the pandemic began, life expectancy in Germany had increased by around 0.1 year a year.
With a minus of more than a year, the southern regions of eastern Germany had recorded the strongest declines, explained Markus Sauerberg from the Federal Institute. Outside of wartime, a drop in life expectancy of more than one year is very unusual, according to the experts.
The strong regional differences can be explained, among other things, with the infection situation, the corona measures taken in the federal state and the behavior of the population. The proximity to severely affected neighboring countries also plays a role.
