Life expectancy of men increasing

The life expectancy of Norwegian women and men is steadily increasing. Based on deaths in 1996, life expectancy now exceeds 81 for newborn girls and 75 for newborn boys. Life expectancy is increasing the most for men, rising fully 0.6 year from 1995 to 1996. For women the increase was 0.3 year.

Norway's life expectancy of 81.1 for women and 75.4 for men is still somewhat lower than in Sweden, where the corresponding ages are 81.5 and 76.5, respectively. Among other countries in Europe, only Switzerland, France and Spain have a higher life expectancy than Norway for women, while Iceland and Switzerland have a higher life expectancy for men.

West Coast residents live longer

The figures for the five-year period 1991-1995 show that residents of the West Coast counties of Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Møre og Romsdal and Rogaland can expect to live the longest, between 81 and 82 years for women and 75 and 76 for men. Life expectancy for residents of Finnmark, the northernmost county in Norway, is the lowest, with 78.7 years for women and only 70.8 years for men. The national average in this five-year period was 80.4 for women and 74.4 for men.

New Statistics

Population Statistics, Deaths, 1996.
Statistics are published every year in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics, Current Population Statistics, and the Official Statistics of Norway (NOS) Population Statistics Vol. III. More information: Randi Jule, tel. +47 62 88 54 64, e-mail: jul@ssb.no or Kirsten Dybendal, tel. +47 62 88 52 96, e-mail: kie@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 25, 1997