Swiss life expectancy rebounds rapidly

Following a dip in life expectancy last year, new figures suggest women can expect to live longer than before the pandemic. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Life expectancy for people living in Switzerland has recovered dramatically from the pandemic induced dip, with mortality rates in 2021 poised to be at their lowest ever levels.

Last year, with Covid-19 filling intensive care beds and resulting in 7,600 deaths, the life expectancy for men (81.9 years) dipped to their lowest level since 1944. For women, life expectancy (85.6 years) was at its lowest since 1962.

However, provisional figures for the first half of 2021 paint a different picture, according to the University Centre for General Medicine and Public Health in Lausanne.

The level of mortality in Switzerland has so far decreased 10.8% compared to 2020, researchers said on MondayExternal link.

If the initial results are confirmed, and carry on for the rest of this year, men’s life expectancy will have completely recovered while women could expect to live even longer than before the pandemic (86 years on average).

Apart from the first six weeks of this year, “mortality was uniformly lower in the first half of 2021 than in any of the previous six years”, the researchers stated. “As a result, mortality in 2021 is so far the lowest ever recorded in Switzerland.”

This shows that the second wave of the pandemic was far less fatal than the first. Deaths from influenza are also set to have “no visible impact” for the second year in a row.

Covid-19 infections have been rising steadily in Switzerland in the last few weeks, but the number of deaths has not increased.

The authorities have put this down to the effect of vaccinations. Tanja Stadler, head of Switzerland’s Covid-19 science taskforce, said last week that two vaccine jabs can prevent eight out of ten hospitalisations.