Healthy Life Years in Estonia Slightly Decline
Text Stewart Johnson Photo Unsplash / Monika Kubala
Estonia’s average life expectancy has skyrocketed since independence was re-established 35 years ago, and today is only slightly lower than the European Union average. Yet a unique metric—healthy life years—declined a bit over the past year. It should be noted, however, that the overall healthy life years metric declined. It increased for people over the age of 35, and for Estonians. What does this mean?
There are many possible explanations, but let’s examine some numbers first. In 1995, average life expectancy in Estonia at birth was a measly 67.6 years, and today is 79.8 years. That is an increase of 12.2 years, or another way to say it is that people in Estonia live on average 18% longer. There are many factors contributing to this, obviously including increased healthcare availability, healthcare quality, and better nutrition. Education is also a factor, as are safety standards. We’ll come back to safety standards in a moment, however.
Compared to 1995, prices in Estonia have also increased somewhat, to put it mildly. What cost €1 in 1995 would today cost €4.50, or something that cost €100 back then would cost roughly €450 today. Nevermind that Estonia did not use the euro at the time, or that the euro itself did not even exist. 30-year inflation in Estonia is about 360%, and if you compare it to the increase in life expectancy of 18%, every 20% of price increases leads to a 1% increase in life expectancy. While the math is undeniable, the logic might not be, yet this could explain why the Estonian government continues to raise taxes, with the hopes that its people will live longer.
And now for safety concerns. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the resulting organised crime, alcoholism, drug use, lack of effective government institutions and so on, the murder rate in Estonia peaked in 1994 at 20.5 murders per 100,000. Today however it is only 1.3 per 100,000. This is a decrease of 94%. Another way to look at this would be that average life expectancy in Estonia rose 1% for every 5.2% decrease in the murder rate. 5.2 ironically is the average murder rate per 100,000 in the United States of America.
The Estonian government has been tightening controls over safety in other areas as well, most notably speed limits on public roads and highways. The City of Tallinn this past year lowered the traditional 50 km/h speed limit in urban areas to 40 km/h, and in many places 30 km/h. While this makes driving considerably less fun and much more time-consuming, it does produce fewer accidents. However, e-scooter accidents are on the rise due to little to no regulation of this runaway market. E-scooters are allowed on pedestrian areas where traditionally people out for a walk would not have to constantly glance over their shoulders to know whether or not it was safe to stretch their arms out without causing an accident.
Conversely, there is the considerable overuse of helmets to keep in mind, especially in suburban areas with a lot of soft grass. Parents require their kids to be overprotected for fear of letting them experience real life away from a screen. This is one place where the drop in healthy life years is noticed: “children” under 35. People over 35 continue to bicycle without a helmet, and yet the average life expectancy for this demographic continues to increase.
Finally, there has been a remarkable increase in non-EU residents in Estonia in recent years. There is no official statistic made available by the government of Estonia regarding how many Americans are now living in Estonia. This is either because they don’t know, or they don’t want to know. Because this number could be anything, then it would be safe to say that for every year that passes, there is a 5.2% increase in the chance that the Estonian government does not want to know. Life expectancy in the United States, the self-proclaimed greatest country in the world, is below Estonia. Another way to express this is that Estonia’s expectancy for healthy life years declines proportionally to the number of Americans who move here.
If you would like to see the official statistics released yesterday morning by Statistics Estonia regarding life expectancy and healthy life years in Estonia so you can draw your own conclusions, please visit here.
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