Life expectancy at birth is 83.3 years
at birth in the Flemish Region for the entire stood at 83.3 years in 2024. Life expectancy at birth was 81.4 years for men and 85.2 years for women. Life expectancy at birth was thus 3.8 years higher in women than in men. For both men and women, life expectancy in 2024 was higher than in 2023.
Between 2000 and 2019, life expectancy at birth has increased from 78.5 years in 2000 to 82.7 years in 2019 (+4.2 years) for the total population. This increase is higher for men (+5.1 years) than for women (+3.3 years).
In 2020, for the first time in 20 years, a clear decline in life expectancy was observed. This was a result of the high number of deaths in that year due to the corona pandemic. In 2021, life expectancy recovered again to roughly the level of 2019, and then continued to rise.
Higher life expectancy for women, also at older ages
At the age of 65, life expectancy for men was 19.8 years and for women 22.6 years. That is a difference of 2.8 years. At the age of 85, life expectancy was 6.3 years for men and 7.3 years for women.
Highest life expectancy in the district of Halle-Vilvoorde
Life expectancy at birth varied between 81.9 and 83.5 years in the 22 Flemish districts in the 2022-2024 period. This is a difference of 1.6 years.
Life expectancy at birth was highest in the district of Halle-Vilvoorde, and lowest in the districts of Diksmuide and Ostend.
Flemish Region in European sub-top for life expectancy
In 2023, life expectancy at birth for the was 83.4 years in the Flemish Region. That was 1.3 years higher than in the Brussels-Capital Region and 2.7 years higher than in the Walloon Region.
Life expectancy varied greatly among EU Member States in 2023. There was a difference of 8.4 years in life expectancy between Spain (84 years) and Latvia (75.6 years). Belgium ranked 9th with a life expectancy of 82.5 years.