India’s Life Expectancy Falls for the First Time in 50 Years

Key Highlights:

• Overall Decline: Life expectancy at birth dropped by 0.2 years between the 2016–2020 and 2017–2021 periods, now estimated at 69.8 years.
• Urban vs Rural:
  • Urban areas saw a sharper decline (0.3 years),
  • Rural areas experienced a 0.1 year drop.
• Gender Gap:
  • Females live on average more than 2 years longer than males at birth.
  • At age 70, females still outlive males by about 1 year.
• State-wise Extremes:
  • Highest: Delhi for males (73 years), Kerala for females (77.9 years).
  • Lowest: Chhattisgarh for both genders (62.8 years for males, 66.4 years for females).
• Historical Trends:
  • Males: Fastest improvement in Odisha, slowest in Haryana.
  • Females: Fastest in Himachal Pradesh and Odisha, slowest in Kerala.

Contributing Factors:

• The decline correlates closely with the COVID-19 pandemic, especially 2021, when deaths surged by over 2 million, from 8.1 million (2020) to 10.2 million (2021).
  • Only 0.6 million deaths were officially attributed to COVID-19, suggesting a possible undercount or deaths from related factors (e.g., healthcare system overload, delayed treatment for other diseases).