Life expectancy increases by two years in the past decade

Saturday 05 February 2022

Islanders are living longer on average than 10 years ago, with men in Jersey now expected to live to 81 and women to 85.

Calculated by Statistics Jersey using data up to 2020, figures released last week have shown showed that life expectancy has increased in Jersey by around two years since 2010.

Though the rate of increase slowed and fluctuated after decades of improvement from 2010 onwards, life expectancy still managed to go up.

During that time, the gender gap between women and men also narrowed from 4.5 years to 3.8 years.

Life expectancy for Jersey and Guernsey were similar, and both were ahead of estimates for England by around two years.

Jersey was found to have "the highest regional life expectancy at birth for both males and females in 2018-2020 compared to all the English regions."

Pictured: Both the rate for men and women went up by around two years since 2010 - 2012.

The report also noted that "despite the covid-19 pandemic, 2020 also saw the lowest number of annual deaths since 2014, which therefore led to a small increase in life expectancy in Jersey in 2018-2020."

It later explained that "the improvement in life expectancy observed in Jersey during 2018-2020 coincided with lower excess deaths and lower mortality involving covid-19, compared with other jurisdictions."

The report also found that life expectancy for those aged 65 years old had increased to 21.2 years.

Pictured: There were a number of fluctuations through this decade, after past decades saw a steady increase. 

On average, a 65-year-old man could expect to live for 19.8 more years, and a 65-year-old woman could expect to live for 22.4 more years. The estimates for men are similar to those for the 2015-2017, while in the same period there has been an increase of 0.4 years for women.

Statistics Jersey added that it will update its life expectancy estimates once data from the 2021 Census is finalised.