In 2024, life expectancy at birth in Estonia stood at 79.5 years; however, healthy life expectancy was just 58.7 years.
Life expectancy in Estonia remains below the European average, which was 81.4 years in 2023. Switzerland and Spain top the continental rankings, with life expectancies exceeding 84 years.
The good news is that Estonia has recorded the largest increase in life expectancy among European countries over the past three decades.
“In 1994, the life expectancy of Estonian residents was 66.5 years, whereas by 2024 it had increased by 13 years and reached 79.5 years,” Eveli Voolens, head of the social statistics team at Statistics Estonia, the national statistics agency, said in a statement.
“In both Latvia and Lithuania, life expectancy has increased by about nine years in the same 30-year period. Life expectancy is currently 77.6 years in Lithuania and 75.6 years in Latvia.”
Voolens noted that Latvia remains among the European countries with the lowest life expectancy. By contrast, Finland had already reached a life expectancy of 76.7 years in 1994, which has since risen by 4.9 years to 81.6.
Nearly three quarters of those aged 80 and over in Estonia are women
“In the European context, Estonia and the other two Baltic countries are notable for the big difference in male and female life expectancies. In Estonia, life expectancy is 83.4 years for women and just 75.1 years for men. The difference is 8.3 years,” Voolens said.
In 2023, average life expectancy in the European Union was 84 years for women and 78.7 for men – a gap of 5.3 years.
Because of the disparity in life expectancy, the proportion of women increases markedly in the older age groups.
“The numbers of men and women are more or less equal within the working-age population, but the number of men then starts to fall rapidly as age increases. As a result, the share of women soars – for example, women constitute 74% of the population aged 80 and over,” Voolens added.
The number of healthy life years is on the rise
Data from 2024 show that Estonian residents can expect 58.7 healthy life years at birth. “Compared with 2023, the number of healthy life years has increased by 0.7 years. Men live disability-free for 56.8 years and women for 60.6 years,” Voolens noted.
Year on year, the data show that urban residents tend to enjoy a longer healthy life than those in rural areas. In 2024, healthy life expectancy stood at 59.7 years in cities, compared with 56.5 years in the countryside.
Rising life expectancy reflects broader socioeconomic development and is closely linked to factors such as place of residence and level of education.
Educated people live longer
“Educational attainment influences the standard of living, which, in turn, has an impact on health and life expectancy. Thus, women with higher education have an average life expectancy of 86 years, while men with basic education can expect to live 68.4 years,” Voolens said.
“The same applies to healthy life years. Based on 2024 data, the average number of healthy life years is 64.5 years for people with higher education and just 48.6 years for those with basic education.”
“The data show that, in 2024, the number of healthy life years increased only for the population with higher education. The indicator remained the same or decreased for population groups with less than higher education.”
Estonians tend to live slightly longer without disability than non-Estonians, with healthy life expectancy at 59.1 and 57.7 years respectively. However, the gap narrowed considerably last year, as healthy life years increased by 1.4 years among non-Estonians, compared with just 0.2 years among Estonians.
The data indicate that healthy life expectancy is the same for Estonian and non-Estonian men, but a gap remains between women in the two groups.
Life expectancy higher in Tartu and Harju counties
Across the counties, life expectancy is highest in Tartu and Harju, both at 80.6 years.
“Life expectancy is higher in urban areas (80.6 years) and lower in rural areas (77.9 years),” Voolens aded. Ida-Viru county has the lowest life expectancy at 77 years.
By gender, life expectancy is highest for women in Saare County at 85 years, and lowest for men in Ida-Viru County at 71.4 years.
Life expectancy at birth is defined as the average number of years a newborn is expected to live, assuming current mortality conditions remain unchanged.
Healthy life years – or disability-free life expectancy – refer to the average number of years a person can expect to live without limitations to daily activities, based on prevailing mortality and public health conditions.
