A new study examining life expectancy across Western European border regions has revealed significant and persistent disparities between neighboring areas. The research, conducted by scientists at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) and released this week, analyzed data from 277 border regions spanning 1995 to 2019, excluding the period of the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on long-term trends.
The findings indicate that differences in life expectancy between adjacent border regions are frequently substantial and remarkably stable over time, often exceeding those observed between border regions and other areas within the same country.
“The results suggest that national frameworks continue to exert a strong influence on regional mortality differences within Europe” stated Pavel Grigoriev, lead author of the study and head of the “Mortality” research group at BiB.
Specifically, the study highlighted instances where life expectancy in German border regions was lower than in neighboring countries. A particularly notable difference was observed along the German-Swiss border, where male residents in German border areas lived, on average, 2.2 years less than their Swiss counterparts. Similar, though smaller, discrepancies were also identified along borders with the Netherlands and Denmark. For women, the largest differences were found when comparing areas bordering France, Switzerland and Denmark.
Despite comparable socio-economic structures and cultural exchange, such as those present along the German-Swiss border, these disparities have remained consistent and, in some cases, have widened over the last few decades. The study did not include border regions with Poland and the Czech Republic.
