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Life expectancy of Singapore's population rises in 2024, marking improvement over Covid-19 years
Life expectancy of Singapore residents rose by 0.9 years in the past decade from 82.6 years in 2014 to 83.5 years in 2024. PHOTO: ST FILE
Life expectancy of Singapore's population rises in 2024, marking improvement over Covid-19 years
SINGAPORE - The life expectancy at birth for the Singapore population in 2024 improved from both 2023 and over the past decade, said the Department of Statistics on May 27.
Life expectancy of Singapore residents rose by 0.9 years in the past decade from 82.6 years in 2014 to 83.5 years in 2024.
The latest figure is also slightly higher than 83.2 years in 2023.
This follows a dip in life expectancy between 2020 and 2023, which was attributed to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Life expectancy refers to the average number of years a person may expect to live, if the mortality rates apply throughout their lives.
The information is contained in the Report on the Complete Life Tables for Singapore Resident Population 2023-2024 released by the Department of Statistics. Singapore residents refer to Singaporeans and permanent residents.
While both genders enjoyed a longer life expectancy in the past decade, women have a longer life span compared to men.
The life expectancy at birth for women was 85.6 years in 2024, compared to 81.2 years for men.
Over the last decade, life expectancy for men improved by 0.9 years from 80.3 years in 2014, while the female life expectancy improved by 0.8 years from 84.8 years in 2014.
The report released on May 27 said that life expectancies for 2020 to 2023 was affected by the higher mortality rates arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, The Straits Times reported that Singapore residents' life expectancy fell for the first time in history since such data became available more than 60 years ago, and this was due to higher mortality rates arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The life expectancy at birth fell by about 10 weeks from 83.7 years in pre-pandemic 2019 to 83.5 years in 2021.
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