Destatis reports German life expectancy recovering after pandemic years

On 22 July 2024, Destatis, Germany's Federal Statistical Office, published new figures on life expectancy in the country. They showed that average life expectancy had risen again after the pandemic years, when deaths from COVID-19 and related effects had slowed or reversed the long-term increase.

The office calculates life expectancy from period life tables, which apply the death rates observed in a given period to a hypothetical newborn. Women continued to live several years longer than men, as in earlier decades. The recovery was widely reported as a return to growth after the setbacks of 2020 to 2022.

The report also carried a caveat. Although the figures were presented as a high point, life expectancy remained below the level that the steady gains seen before 2020 would have produced by now. Germany also trailed several Western European countries with comparable wealth. The release became a reference point in later debates over whether longevity gains in Germany had stalled, and over the roles of ageing, health care and lifestyle.