The pandemic has had a significant impact on mortality rates and life expectancy in Finland and Iceland. Although both countries initially had lower mortality rates at the start of the pandemic, this eventually led to higher mortality rates later on.
In Finland, life expectancy in 2022 was still 0.4 years shorter than in 2019, mainly due to the significant number of elderly deaths during the corona wave in November-December of the same year. However, there are signs that the mortality rate is falling to pre-pandemic levels at the beginning of this year. On the other hand, Iceland managed to reduce the mortality rate of people over 70 significantly by implementing strict measures at the beginning of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this may have contributed to an over-mortality observed in 2022 and 2023 due to under-mortality seen in 2020.
The aging population of Finland has a significant impact on mortality rates, including corona mortality. Due to weakened immune responses in the elderly, corona infections can be fatal for them despite vaccinations. Although corona deaths among the elderly do not affect life expectancy as much as younger populations, they can still have an impact if numbers are high.
In 2022, life expectancy for Finns was 81.7 years while for Icelanders it was 82.6 years. Spain has the highest life expectancy in Europe with an average of 84 years