Thuringia was particularly hard hit by the corona pandemic last year. This affects life expectancy, as population researchers and statisticians have calculated.
Wiesbaden/Erfurt (dpa/th) – The average life expectancy of newborns in Thuringia fell more than in any other federal state during the Corona waves last year. For boys born in 2021, it was a good 1.6 years and for girls around 1.2 years below that of the pre-pandemic year 2019, according to data from the Federal Institute for Population Research (BIB). “In the analysis between 2019 and 2021, the southern regions of eastern Germany have recorded the strongest declines,” explained Markus Sauerberg from the BIB in Wiesbaden on Wednesday.
Statistically, a boy born in Thuringia in 2021 can live to be around 76.1 years old – for boys born in 2019 the life expectancy was around 77.7 years. Girls born in 2021 can expect to live 82.1 years. For girls born in 2019, it is around 83.3 years.
According to the experts, a falling life expectancy of more than one year is very unusual outside of wartime. “Reductions of this magnitude were last recorded at the end of the GDR,” explained the research director at the Federal Institute, Sebastian Klüsener. In 2021, Thuringia, along with Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, was one of the federal states particularly hard hit by the pandemic. The delta variant of the corona virus in particular led to serious illnesses and many deaths.
Sauerberg explained that not only were years of life lost in older people. “In men, increased mortality in middle age between 45 and 70 years also contributed significantly to this development.” The Thuringian State Office for Statistics recently pointed out that the increases in life expectancy in Thuringia over the past five to seven years are now no longer valid.
Nationwide, life expectancy for newborns fell by around 0.6 years (boys) and around 0.4 years (girls) last year. The population researchers explained the strong regional differences with the infection situation, the corona measures taken and the behavior of the population. The proximity to severely affected neighboring countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland also plays a role.
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.
