European Commission - Public Health: healthindicators.org

General information about this indicator

The indicator presented here is an ECHI shortlist indicator. The ECHI shortlist is a list of about 90 public health indicators, which has been developed by the European Commission together with the European Union Member States. Currently (2009-2011) a Joint Action for ECHIM is ongoing, which aims at implementing the ECHI shortlist. Twenty four European Union Member States and some other European countries are participating in the Joint Action (click here for the full list of participating countries). More information on ECHI and the Joint Action can be found at the ECHIM website. More information on the specifications of this indicator can be found in the indicator’s Documentation Sheet.

Indicator definition

Life expectancy at birth is a summary measure of the age-specific all cause mortality rates in an area in a given period. It is the average number of years a new-born baby would survive, were he or she to experience the particular area's age-specific mortality rates for that time period throughout his or her life. Life expectancy can be calculated starting at different ages. Here we present:

1. Life expectancy at birth
2. Life expectancy at age 65

Source information

Eurostat, 2009.

Eurostat is the preferred source for data on life expectancy for ECHIM.

Data are collected by Eurostat from the National Statistical Offices. The Eurostat calculation is based on the data submitted by the Member States (demographic and mortality data). Life expectancies are calculated using (abridged) life tables presenting age specific mortality rates. Different calculation methods of abridged life-tables produce slightly different results. Farr's method of calculation of abridged life-tables assumes that there is a constant mortality within the age intervals and thus the years of life lived by a person dying in the interval is (on average) half of the length of the interval. Eurostat calculates life expectancy tables based on death probabilities according to Farr's death rate method.

Click here for the Eurostat’s Concepts and Definitions Database (CODED).

Availability

In Eurostat, data on life expectancy is available for the period 1960 – 2007, for most EU-27 Member States, as well as for the other countries participating in the Joint Action for ECHIM. For some countries data are presented only from the 1990’s onwards (Cyprus, France, Liechtenstein, Poland, Macedonia, the United Kingdom) and Croatia and Latvia not even before 2002. For Malta, life expectancy figures are missing from 1982 to 1994.

WHO-Health For All and OECD also have regularly updated data on life expectancy, based on national data. However, they use slightly different approaches to estimating life expectancy, which explains why indicators of life expectancy may differ between different databases.

Comparability between countries

Absolute figures received from the National Statistical Institutes are validated by Eurostat before being sent to the database. Mortality rates by age are recalculated by Eurostat to the same definition, the age reached during the year of the event. This permits rates to be recombined by generation and it ensures comparability between the countries.

For further information on the methodology for the calculation of life expectancies by sex and age used by Eurostat (Calot & Sardon, 2004).

Comparability within countries

Comparability within the countries is usually good. However, since raw national numbers are recalculated by Eurostat, some indicators might differ from the ones published by the countries themselves.