Finland's male life expectancy reaches 80 years for the first time
In August, Finland's life expectancy for newborn boys rose to 80 years, narrowing the gender gap to under five years.
Finland recorded a milestone in August as the projected lifespan of newborn boys hit 80 years, according to data from Statistics Finland. Markus Rapo, the agency's chief actuary, explained that the figure recovered swiftly following a decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The gap between male and female life expectancy has shrunk to under five years, a level not seen for more than 100 years.
Compared with other EU27 countries, Finnish boys still have one of the shortest expected lifespans, ranking around fourteenth, whereas Finnish girls rank second among the Nordics and ninth in the EU. Boys first surpassed 70 years in 1982 and 75 years in 2003, while girls have already exceeded 80 years since 1994. The gender gap was widest in the late 1970s at nine years, but remains larger in Finland than in neighboring Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark, where the difference is about three to four years.
