The CSO today published the 15th official Irish Life Tables. The release contains estimates of life expectancy for the period 2005 to 2007. Some of the key points highlighted in the release include:

Period life expectancy at birth for males increased by 1.7 years to 76.8 years between 2002 and 2006. Period life expectancy at birth for females increased by 1.3 years to 81.6 years over the same period.

In 1926, the first in the series of official Irish Life tables showed that life expectancy at birth for males was 57.4 years compared with 57.9 years for females. In the following 80 years life expectancy rose by 19.4 years (33.8%) and 23.7 years (40.8%) for males and females respectively.

The gap between male and female life expectancy fell to 4.8 years in 2006, compared with 5.2 years in 2002 and a peak of 5.7 years in 1986.

Life expectancy increased across all 8 regions in Ireland for both males and females between 2002 and 2006.

At a regional level, the Mid-East and Midlands reported the highest life expectancy for males at 77.2 years, while the highest life expectancy for females was in the West (82.7 years).

Irish male life expectancy ranked in joint 12th place in the EU in 2006 while Irish female life expectancy ranked 16th.

The highest life expectancy at birth among EU member states was reported in Sweden and Cyprus for males (78.8 years), while for females Spain and France were highest (84.4 years).

Life expectancy for females was higher in all EU member states with the largest gap in Lithuania (11.7 years) and the smallest gap in Cyprus (3.6 years).