Life expectancy (i11)
- 11/04/2023
- objective
- assessment
In 2021, life expectancy at birth in Belgium was 81.9 years. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must not decrease. The Federal Planning Bureauʹs projections (available in April 2023) indicate that this objective will be reached. The life expectancy at birth is therefore developing favourably.
Life expectancy - Belgium - trend assessment
years at birth
| 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2021 | 2025 | 2030 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| observations | 77.9 | 79.1 | 80.3 | 81.1 | 80.8 | 81.9 | -- | -- |
| projection (April 2023) | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 82.8 | 83.6 |
Federal Planning Bureau and Statbel (2022), Demographic forecasting - Update Ukraine.
Life expectancy - Belgium and international comparison
years at birth
| 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2016 | 2020 | 2021 | 2021//1990 | 2021//2016 | 2021//2002 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 76.2 | 77.0 | 77.9 | 79.1 | 80.3 | 81.1 | 81.5 | 80.8 | 81.9 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| EU27 | -- | -- | -- | 78.4 | 79.8 | 80.5 | 80.9 | 80.4 | 80.1 | -- | -0.2 | 0.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||||||
break in time series: BE 2011; provisional estimate: BE 2020, EU 2018 and 2019
Statbel; Eurostat (2022), Mortality and life expectancy statistics [demo_mlexpec, sdg_03_10], https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 30/05/2022).
Life expectancy by region - Belgium
years at birth
| 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2019 | 2020 | 2020//1990 | 2020//2015 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels-Capital Region | 77.0 | 76.8 | 78.0 | 79.0 | 80.2 | 80.9 | 81.6 | 79.4 | 0.1 | -0.4 |
| Flemish Region | 77.3 | 77.7 | 78.6 | 79.9 | 81.2 | 82.1 | 83.0 | 82.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| Walloon Region | 75.4 | 75.8 | 76.5 | 77.6 | 78.8 | 79.8 | 80.9 | 80.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||||
Statbel; Eurostat (2022), Mortality and life expectancy statistics [demo_mlexpec], https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 30/05/2022).
Life expectancy by sex - Belgium
years at birth
| 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2016 | 2020 | 2021 | 2021//1990 | 2021//2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 79.5 | 80.4 | 81.0 | 81.9 | 83.0 | 83.4 | 84.0 | 83.0 | 84.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| males | 72.7 | 73.5 | 74.6 | 76.2 | 77.5 | 78.7 | 79.0 | 78.6 | 79.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||||
break in time series: 2011; provisional estimate: 2020
Statbel; Eurostat (2022), Mortality and life expectancy statistics [demo_mlexpec], https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 30/05/2022).
Definition: Life expectancy at birth expresses the number of years people would live if they were subjected throughout their life to the mortality conditions observed at the time of their birth. In Belgium, the death probability, which is used to measure life expectancy at birth, is calculated on the basis of the National Registry of Natural Persons (–Statistics Belgium, 2019). Statistics Belgium collects the data in Belgium and makes them available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results among EU Member States.
Goal: life expectancy must not decrease.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” As good health results in longer life expectancy, it is considered that there is an implicit aim that life expectancy must not decline.
International comparison: life expectancy developments in Belgium and in the European Union are parallel, with Belgium's life expectancy (81.9 years) being slightly higher than that of the EU27, which reached 80.1 years in 2021. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and outperforms the European average in 2021. In that year, Spain ranked first with 83.3 years and Bulgaria last with 73.4 years.
UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to goal 3 since life expectancy is a measure of the overall population health.
Sources
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General
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SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.
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Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.
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UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
- UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).
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Specific
- Statistics Belgium (2019), Tables de mortalité et espérance de vie, http://statbel.fgov.be (consulted on 24/09/2020).
Federal Planning Bureau
At www.indicators.be the Federal Planning Bureau presents sustainable development indicators.
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