Life expectancy has increased significantly in the 90s in the European Union, to more than 79 years, but there are still strong disparities between countries, the annual report released Wednesday by the European Health Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated, cited by AFP.
On average in the 28 EU Member States, life expectancy at birth was 79.2 years in 2012, by 5.1 years longer than in 1990.
The increase is due 'mainly to the significant reduction of mortality from cardiovascular disease, especially in people aged between 50 and 65 years,' the OECD said.
Spain (which has a life expectancy of 82.5 years), Italy (82.4 years) and France (82.1 years) are among the European countries with the highest life expectancy.
The Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries are at the bottom of the table: life expectancy is below 75 years in Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania, the report said. However, in this region, some countries have made progress, as is the case of Estonia, where life expectancy has increased by seven years since 1990, and the Czech Republic (6.6 years).
In other cases only a small improvement was found: in Lithuania and Bulgaria, life expectancy has increased by three years between 1992 and 2012.
Life expectancy for women remains higher than in men in the EU (82.2 years in 2012 for women compared to 76.1 years for men), even if the difference between the sexes in terms of life expectancy has decreased slightly from 7.2 years in 1990 to 6.1 years in 2012.
Cardiovascular diseases (including heart attack and stroke) remain the leading cause of death in Europe: they accounted for 40% of causes of deaths in 2011, followed by cancer (24% of deaths).
The mortality level caused by cancer remained stable or increased in the Baltic countries and in several countries in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Macedonia).