Finnish women live on average 7 years longer than men

The number of deaths registered in Finland increased in 2020 compared to 2019.

According to Statistics Finland's figures, en 2020 a total of 55,488 persons died in the country, which is 1,539 more than in the year before.

Men died, on average, at the age of 75.3 and women at 82.1.

Women died, on average, 6.9 years older than men.

In young age groups, a majority of deaths occurred among men but among persons aged 83 and older there were more deaths among women than men.

The median age at death was 77.8 years for men and 85.5 years for women.

The median describes the middle value, that is, one-half of all persons that died, died at a younger or older age than the median age at death.

Infant mortality

Last year the life expectancy at birth was 79 years for boys and 84.6 years for girls. For boys, the life expectancy decreased by 0.13 years and for girls it increased by 0.09 years compared with 2019.

Life expectancy at birth indicates how many years a newborn would live on average if mortality remained at its present level.

In 2020 the country recorded 83 infant deaths, that is, children who died at the age of under one year. The number is lowest in the history of independent Finland for the second year in a row. In 2019 there were 96 infant deaths.

Infant mortality per one thousand live-born children was 1.8, which is 0.3 per mil lower than in the previous year. The infant mortality rate of boys, 2.1 per mil, was slightly higher than that of girls, 1.5 per mil.