Yoga in Lucerne, a healthy lifestyle can increase life expectancy
KEYSTONE/Christof Schuerpf
Switzerland has the highest life expectancy in Europe at 83.7 years, according to Eurostat. On a regional level, only Madrid in Spain, where people can expect to live until 85.2 years old, tops the Swiss canton of Ticino (85 years).
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Suiza y España tienen la esperanza de vida más alta en Europa
In its latest breakdown of life expectancy figuresExternal link, the European Union’s statistics portal found that on a regional level, Spain came out tops: it had three regions in the top five. Switzerland also did well, as did Italy.
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Within Switzerland, the area with the highest life expectancy after the southern Italian-speaking canton of Ticino was the Lake Geneva region, at 84.2.
This actually puts Lake Geneva just below Trentino in the rankings, along with the Île de France around Paris. Next in line for Switzerland was Central Switzerland, with a life expectancy of 84, so still among the top 15 regions in Europe.
Switzerland in detail
After that came Zurich at 83.9, followed by the northwest (Basel area, Aargau) at 83.6, and eastern Switzerland (from Glarus to Thurgau, includes St Gallen) at 83.4, according to Eurostat.
The last spot, although still with a very high life expectancy, was held by the “Espace Mittelland” (Bern, Freibourg, Solothurn, Neuchâtel and the Jura) at 83.1.
Across Europe, most of the regions with relatively low levels of life expectancy were located in the easternmost regions of the EU. The lowest was in the Bulgarian region of Severozapaden (73.3 years).
“The figures show that there is a difference of 11.9 years between the regions with the highest and lowest life expectancy,” said Eurostat on Friday.
In terms of life expectancy in countriesExternal link, using Eurostat figures, Switzerland is still on top at 83.7, followed by Spain (83.5), Italy (83.4) and France, Luxembourg and Cyprus (all 82.7). The EU average is 81 years old.
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