The countries in Europe where residents live the longest – and it’s a bleak picture for the British
Britons have the worst life expectancy in Western Europe, a shocking new report has revealed.
An analysis of life expectancy across the continent shows that people born in Britain will now live an average of around 80.9 years.
This puts Britain behind the average of 81.5 years of life for the 27 EU countries, and the worst in Western Europe, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report shows.
Switzerland has the highest life expectancy: the average Swiss lives to 84.2 years – three years more than the average Briton. This was closely followed by Spain at 84 years and Italy at 83.8 years.
The OECD report, which examined life expectancy in 39 European countries, placed Britain 21st, losing out to countries including Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Slovenia.
Moldova reported the lowest life expectancy at 73.3 years, followed by embattled Ukraine at 74.3 years and Georgia at 73.7 years.
The OECD report comes after the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) also reported a decline in life expectancy.
An ONS report last month found that men have lost six months of their lives and women three months since the Covid pandemic.
Boys born in England today are expected to live to just 79 years, while girls will live to an average of 83 years, a decline from pre-pandemic figures.
Some analysts have attributed the decline to increased mortality from Covid deaths, while others have pointed to increased obesity rates and its impact on health.
OECD analysts also highlighted that average life expectancy in the EU has increased by one year since the last report published in 2022.
In contrast, British life expectancy had only increased by six months over the same period.
The report also shows that across the EU, life expectancy for women is still higher than that of men, with women living an average of 5.3 years longer.
But researchers say the gap is closing.
Data for Britain shows the difference in life expectancy is just four years, with women living almost 83 years compared to 79 years for men.
