In 2020
Life expectancy at birth increased again in the Autonomous Region of Madeira
The results published by Statistics Portugal (INE) show that life expectancy at birth for the population of the Autonomous Region of Madeira in the 2018-2020 period stood at 78.52 years: 74.63 years for men and 81.52 years for women. Compared to the three-year period 1999-2001, longevity in the Region increased by 5.36 years, with a growth of 6.16 years for men and 4.41 years for women.
Life expectancy at birth continues to be higher for women, however the gap between genders shrunk between 1999-2001 (8.64 years) and 2018-2020 (6.89 years). Still, Madeira is the NUTS 2 region in which the difference between genders remains higher than the difference observed in the other NUTS II regions (5.60 years in the country). The greatest differences were observed in the Autonomous Regions of Madeira (6.89 years) and Azores (6.82 years) and the smallest in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (5.41) and in the Norte region (5.44).
For Portugal, life expectancy at birth was estimated at 81.06 years (2.54 years higher when compared with the Autonomous Region of Madeira). In the country, life expectancy for the female gender is 83.67 years while for men is 78.07 years. By NUTS II region, longevity is greater in Norte (81.46 years), contrasting with the Autonomous Region of the Azores, whose life expectancy at birth is the lowest in the country (78.00 years).
Life expectancy at 65 years for the population of the Autonomous Region of Madeira was 17.72 years old. Men aged 65 can expect to live an additional 15.08 years, on average, and women an average of 19.46 years longer. Note that there is a slight increase in life expectancy at age 65 compared to the previous period (15.00 years for men and 19.39 years for women in 2017-2019).
Life expectancy at age 65 for the total Portuguese population stood at 19.69 years (1.97 years higher than in Madeira): 17.76 years for men and 21.11 years for women. In the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (19.97 years) longevity at 65 years is the highest and in the Autonomous Region of Azores this longevity is the lowest of the country (17.63 years).
Although life expectancy (at birth and at age 65) remains lower than the estimated for the country as a whole, the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and Azores are the NUTS 2 regions in which life expectancy increased the most in the last decade.