More similar life expectancy for men and women

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In 2017, life expectancy was 84.3 years for women and 80.9 years for men. In the last 30 years, the difference between men and women's life expectancy has halved.

The increase in life expectancy at birth from the previous year was 0.11 years for women and 0.30 years for men.

The expected life expectancy of new-born boys in 2017 was equivalent to that of girls 20 years earlier. The gender gap has been decreasing steadily since 1987. Thirty years ago, the disparity was 6.8 years, while last year it fell to 3.4 years.

Figure 1. Life expectancy at birth for males and females. Norway

Males Females
1950 69.91 73.21
1951 70.75 74.22
1952 71.03 74.28
1953 71.23 75.02
1954 71.34 75.05
1955 71.56 75.28
1956 71.46 75.47
1957 71.36 75.48
1958 71.36 75.48
1959 71.36 75.74
1960 71.32 75.83
1961 71.17 76.02
1962 70.96 76.02
1963 70.79 75.47
1964 71.26 76.05
1965 71.07 76.49
1966 71.42 76.69
1967 71.33 76.95
1968 71.23 76.80
1969 70.80 76.67
1970 70.98 77.32
1971 71.15 77.36
1972 71.32 77.51
1973 71.31 77.69
1974 71.68 77.96
1975 71.70 78.05
1976 72.00 78.19
1977 72.23 78.66
1978 72.36 78.63
1979 72.16 78.81
1980 72.33 79.16
1981 72.62 79.26
1982 72.65 79.54
1983 72.73 79.55
1984 72.99 79.61
1985 72.59 79.40
1986 72.87 79.74
1987 72.75 79.55
1988 73.05 79.57
1989 73.34 79.85
1990 73.44 79.81
1991 74.01 80.09
1992 74.16 80.34
1993 74.24 80.25
1994 74.88 80.79
1995 74.80 80.82
1996 75.37 81.07
1997 75.45 80.97
1998 75.54 81.28
1999 75.62 81.13
2000 75.96 81.38
2001 76.21 81.53
2002 76.45 81.52
2003 77.04 81.93
2004 77.50 82.33
2005 77.72 82.52
2006 78.12 82.66
2007 78.24 82.66
2008 78.31 82.95
2009 78.60 83.05
2010 78.85 83.15
2011 79.00 83.45
2012 79.42 83.41
2013 79.65 83.61
2014 80.03 84.10
2015 80.36 84.15
2016 80.61 84.17
2017 80.91 84.28

Life expectancy at birth is determined by the mortality rate for all ages, but deaths in early age have the greatest consequence. The infant mortality rate was the same for boys and girls last year, which is a strong contributing factor in the equalisation of gender disparities. The infant mortality rate was 2.3 children per 1 000 live births in 2017, compared to 9.1 for boys and 7.6 for girls 30 years earlier.

Figure 2. The share of deaths below age 1 per 1 000 live births

Boys Girls
1976 11.0 9.8
1977 10.6 7.7
1978 9.3 7.9
1979 10.1 7.4
1980 9.0 7.1
1981 8.5 6.5
1982 8.9 7.2
1983 8.8 7.0
1984 8.3 8.4
1985 10.2 6.7
1986 8.3 7.2
1987 9.1 7.6
1988 9.0 7.1
1989 8.7 6.9
1990 8.1 5.6
1991 6.6 5.7
1992 6.2 5.2
1993 5.7 4.4
1994 5.8 4.6
1995 4.9 3.1
1996 4.5 3.6
1997 4.3 3.6
1998 4.6 3.4
1999 4.4 3.3
2000 4.3 3.3
2001 4.3 3.5
2002 3.3 3.6
2003 3.7 3.1
2004 3.3 3.1
2005 3.3 2.9
2006 3.7 2.6
2007 3.2 2.9
2008 3.3 2.1
2009 3.7 2.4
2010 3.1 2.5
2011 3.0 1.7
2012 2.8 2.1
2013 2.3 2.7
2014 2.6 2.2
2015 2.6 2.1
2016 2.3 2.0
2017 2.3 2.3

Life expectancy is calculated for all ages, and the gender disparity narrows as we move up the age categories. Until the age of 40, the disparity is over 3 years, falling to 2 years at age 70 and less than 1 year at age 85.

Men who reach 100 years of age seem to have at least as good life expectancy as women, but the basis of calculation at this age is so small that these figures are highly uncertain.

Shift in European trend?

Norway, like the rest of Europe, has had a long-term increase in life expectancy. According to the EU statistical agency Eurostat, there was a decline in life expectancy in two of three countries in 2015 compared to 2014. For women, there was a decline in three out of four countries. Norway had no decline.

Figure 3. Life expectancy at birth for males and females for a selection of countries. 2015

Males Females
Iceland 81.2 83.8
Sweeden 80.4 84.1
Norway 80.5 84.2
Finland 78.7 84.4
Denmark 78.8 82.7
Japan 80.8 87.0
Spain 80.1 85.7
France 79.2 85.5
Italy 80.7 84.9
Switzerland 81.1 85.1
Austria 79.1 83.7
Germany 78.7 83.1
Netherlands 80.0 83.2
Lithuania 69.2 79.7
Romania 71.4 78.7

Japanese women traditionally live the longest of all, and by 2015 they reached an expected life expectancy of 87 years, which is 0.2 years more than in 2014.

Low mortality numbers

Figure 4. Deaths. Males and females

Males Females Both sexes
1966 19491 16519 36010
1967 19730 16486 36216
1968 20378 17290 37668
1969 21353 17641 38994
1970 21345 17378 38723
1971 21309 17672 38981
1972 21488 17887 39375
1973 21890 18068 39958
1974 21485 17979 39464
1975 21894 18167 40061
1976 21925 18291 40216
1977 21744 18080 39824
1978 22078 18604 40682
1979 22655 18977 41632
1980 22606 18734 41340
1981 22818 19075 41893
1982 22631 18823 41454
1983 22919 19305 42224
1984 23005 19576 42581
1985 23783 20589 44372
1986 23462 20098 43560
1987 24008 20951 44959
1988 23705 21649 45354
1989 23604 21569 45173
1990 23866 22155 46021
1991 23145 21778 44923
1992 23071 21660 44731
1993 23769 22828 46597
1994 22348 21723 44071
1995 23020 22170 45190
1996 22106 21754 43860
1997 22262 22333 44595
1998 22067 22045 44112
1999 22426 22744 45170
2000 21665 22337 44002
2001 21630 22351 43981
2002 21643 22822 44465
2003 20565 21913 42478
2004 19991 21209 41200
2005 20113 21119 41232
2006 19628 21625 41253
2007 20216 21738 41954
2008 20322 21390 41712
2009 19912 21537 41449
2010 20027 21472 41499
2011 20069 21324 41393
2012 20072 21920 41992
2013 19976 21306 41282
2014 19706 20688 40364
2015 19740 20987 40727
2016 19683 21043 40726
2017 19649 21125 40774

In 2016, 40 774 persons died in Norway; 21 125 women and 19 649 men. These figures are almost the same as the year before. A total of 34 fewer men and 82 more women died in 2017 than the year before. Since the end of the 1990s, more women than men have died because there are more elderly women than men in Norway. The average age of death among men and women is 76.5 and 82.2 years respectively.

Figure 5

Number of deaths by sex and age at death. 2017

 

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