A little bit older every year – this is how life expectancy statistics used to look. But the corona pandemic has left its mark, also in Bavaria.
Munich (dpa / lby) – The average life expectancy of people in Bavaria has fallen as a result of the corona pandemic. According to figures from the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) in Wiesbaden, girls born in 2019 in the Free State could still hope for an average age of 83.96 years, boys for 79.63 years. Life expectancy has been falling since then, according to statistics released on Wednesday. In 2021, it was only 83.53 years for newborn girls in Bavaria and 78.92 years for boys.
This puts Bavaria in second place – behind leader Baden-Württemberg, where women come to 84.13 and men to 79.56 years. On average in Germany, the age of women fell from 83.49 to 83.12 years between 2019 and 2021. For men it was 78.72 years in 2019 and only 78.11 years in 2021.
In the past, life expectancy increased slightly from year to year. The researchers attribute the drop to deaths from the pandemic, which began in spring 2020. In men, an increased mortality rate in middle age between 45 and 70 years also contributed, according to the statement.
A look at the statistics shows that Bavaria is in the midfield when it comes to the change in life expectancy in a nationwide comparison. In countries such as Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony or North Rhine-Westphalia, it fell less sharply, in Schleswig-Holstein it even rose for men. The development in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia was drastic. Life expectancy for men there fell by an average of more than 1.5 years.
“The numbers show the danger that the corona virus can pose,” says the institute. The strong regional differences also made it clear that regional factors also influenced mortality. The institute mentioned corona measures, the behavior of the population or the infection situation, which differs from region to region.
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.
