More people died in 2024, but Dutch men’s life expectancy increased slightly

Last year, 172,000 people died in the Netherlands, around 2,500 more than in 2023. Mortality increased especially among women and the elderly. The life expectancy for men increased in 2024 and decreased slightly for women, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported based on provisional figures.

“With the growing and aging population, the annual number of deaths is also increasing,” CBS said. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, mortality increased by more than the preceding period. That was followed by a few fairly stable years, and now the number of deaths increased again in 2024.

87,200 women and 84,900 men died last year. The increase compared to a year earlier was greater for women. More women than men have died every year since 1997. “This is because there are more older women in the population who also die at the higher age,” CBS said. Only at the peak of the pandemic, in 2021, did more men than women die.

The increase in the number of deaths was primarily due to aging. 57 percent of people who died last year were 80 years old or older. 2,300 more people in this age group died than in 2023.

Last year, the life expectancy at birth was 80.5 years for men and 83.3 years for women. That is 3 months more for men than in 2023 and one month less for women.