COVID pandemic knocked 1.6 years off global life expectancy, study finds

[Bayard]

Global life expectancy had been on the rise since 1950, but this historical trend was reversed between 2019 and 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global life expectancy — the average number of years a person can expect to live from their time of birth — dropped by 1.6 years at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows.

Global life expectancy had been on the rise until the pandemic struck, jumping from 49 years in 1950 to more than 73 years in 2019, according to the new study, published Tuesday (March 12) in the journal The Lancet. But between 2019 and 2021, this historical trend was reversed. This time frame captures the first two years of the pandemic, in which death rates peaked.

"For adults worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event seen in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters," lead author Austin Schumacher, an acting assistant professor of health metric sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said in a statement.

In 2020 and 2021 combined, approximately 16 million people died either directly from COVID-19 or from the knock-on effects of the global outbreak, which included delays in seeking health care. This excess death toll reduced global life expectancy from 73.4 years in 2019 to below 71.8 years in 2021, with stark regional differences not reflected in these global averages.

The study presents updated mortality estimates from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study, which quantified global health trends across places and over time. In the work, researchers analyzed data from 204 countries and territories. Of these, only 32 showed an increase in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021. Those countries included Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Iceland, Ireland and Norway, which are all high-income countries.

https://www.livescience.com/health/coronavirus/covid-pandemic-knocked-16-years-off-global-life-expectancy-study-finds