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Life expectancy for newborns has fallen: 0.4 years for girls and 0.6 years for boys (stock image)
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The average statistical life expectancy in Germany has fallen significantly compared to the year before the pandemic due to the corona pandemic.
The Federal Statistical Office calculated the life expectancy for girls born in 2021 at 83.2 years - 0.4 years less than in 2019. Life expectancy for boys fell by 0.6 years to 78.2 years.
The calculation of life expectancy is a statistical snapshot of the mortality ratios of the entire population for the period under consideration.
The calculation does not contain any assumptions as to how life expectancy will develop in the future.
The life expectancy of newborns therefore indicates how long they would live on average given the current survival conditions - but this can change, for example after the end of the corona pandemic.
The Federal Statistical Office cites the exceptionally high number of deaths during the pandemic as the main reason for the reduced life expectancy.
In the second corona wave, the eastern German states were particularly affected.
Therefore, the decline in life expectancy at birth from 2019 to 2021 was particularly evident there.
Accordingly, the value decreased by 1.3 years for boys and by 0.9 years for girls.
In western Germany, the decline was 0.4 years for boys and 0.3 years for girls.
According to the statisticians, Corona also led to a significant increase in deaths.
In the years before the pandemic, the number of deaths rose by one to two percent per year due to the aging of society.
At the same time, life expectancy before the start of the corona pandemic tended to increase.
The effect of increasing life expectancy thus weakened the aging effect.
In the first year of the pandemic, there was an increase of five percent to 986,000 deaths.
Comparing the years 2019 and 2021, there was even a nine percent increase in deaths to 1.02 million.
However, the number of additional deaths of around 70,000 to 100,000 in 2020 and 2021 was below the almost 115,000 corona deaths reported by the Robert Koch Institute.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, this could be due to the fact that there were fewer deaths from other infectious diseases such as the flu as a result of the protective measures and changes in behavior.
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