Maha life expectancy dipped by 2.36 years during pandemic

With two million excess deaths during the Covid-19 years, the average life span in India took a hit, reversing the gradual upwards trend for the first time in five decades.

- Sabah Virani

MUMBAI:

In Maharashtra, life expectancy went down by 2.36 years, with men bearing over six times the burden than women, an analysis of 2021 mortality data released by the government on May 7 by research scholars and a professor at the Indian Institute of Population Studies (IIPS) has revealed.

In 2019, the average person in Maharashtra lived to see 73.35 years. By 2021, this had dropped to 70.99 years. This drop was disproportionately borne by men in the state, whose life span dropped from 71.93 years to 68.14 years between those years, marking a decrease of 3.79 years.