In 2022, the life expectancy in Iceland was 80.9 years for men and 83.8 years for women.
Life expectancy at birth measures how long, on average, people can expect to live based on population age-specific mortality rates. These rates have decreased over the last decades which means people can expect to live even longer than calculated average life expectancy shows.
During the past 30 years, life expectancy in Iceland has increased by six and four years for men and women respectively. However, life expectancy for women decreased by 0.3 years from 2021 to 2022, while it remained the same for men.
Over a ten-year period (2012–2021), the average life expectancy in Europe was longest, or 85,6 years, in San Marino followed by Switzerland (83.4), Spain (83.2) and Italy (83.0) while Liechtenstein and Iceland were in fifth and sixth place with a life expectancy of 82.9 and 82.8 years respectively. The average life expectancy for men was lowest in Ukraine (72.6), Belarus (73.6) and Georgia (73.6).
An attempt to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mortality and life expectancy over a three- year period from 2019 to 2021 shows that the effects were worst in Bulgaria, where the estimated lifespan declined by 3.7 years, followed by Albania (3.6), North-Macedonia (3.4) and Serbia and Slovakia (3.2). The country which seems to have fared best during the pandemic was Norway, where the life expectancy increased by 0.2 years between 2019 and 2021. Following Norway were Liechtenstein and Denmark (0.1) and Luxembourg and Iceland where life expectancy remained unchanged. Of the countries which seem to have fared best during the pandemic, Iceland was in 5th place, although it should be noted that the United Kingdom and Turkey, along with nine other European countries, have not yet delivered data.
Infant mortality in Iceland the lowest in Europe
In 2022, 2,693 Icelandic residents died; 1,365 men and 1,328 women. The mortality rate was 7.0 per 1,000 inhabitants.
In 2022, infant mortality in Iceland was 1.4 children out of every 1,000 live births, the lowest for a single year since 2019. On the other hand, looking at ten-year average (2012–2021), infant mortality in Iceland averaged 2.0 children out of every 1,000 live births. Apart from Andorra and San Marino, infant mortality was lowest in Iceland and Finland (2.0) followed by Slovenia (2.2), Norway (2.2), Estonia (2.2) and Sweden (2.3). The highest infant mortality rate in the period from 2012 to 2021 was in Azerbaijan (10.8).
About life expectancy and mortality rates
The ten years average values for life expectancy and mortality rates are based on Eurostat database. Excluded are data from Andorra, Kosovo, Moldova, Russia and San Marino, due to the fact that information is missing for the majority of the examined period.