Trends in life expectancy in EU and other OECD countries

This paper reports on trends in life expectancy in the 28 EU countries and some other high-income OECD countries, and examines potential explanations for the slowdown in improvements in recent years. The slowdown in improvements in life expectancy since 2011 has been greatest in the USA, where life expectancy has fallen in recent years, and the UK, but France, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands have also seen a sharp slowdown. Overall, the pace of mortality improvement has slowed in several EU countries and Australia and Canada since 2011. Diseases of older ages are major contributors to the slowdown. Improvements in cardiovascular (CVD) disease mortality have slowed in many countries, respiratory diseases,…