Bulgaria reports lowest life expectancy in EU

Bulgaria is the country with lowest life expectancy in the European Union (EU), the National Statistical Institute (NSI) reported here on Wednesday.

Life expectancy at birth of the Bulgarian population calculated for the period 2017-2019 was 74.9 years, an increase of 0.1 years compared to the 2016-2018 period, the NSI said.

However, it was far from the countries with the highest life expectancy in the EU -- Spain and Italy, which have registered 83.5 years and 83.4 years respectively, the NSI figures showed.

Different mortality rates among male and female, as well as among urban and rural population resulted in differences in the life expectancy at birth for these population categories in Bulgaria, the NSI said.

"Life expectancy at birth for male population is 71.5 years, while for female it is 7.0 years higher -- 78.5 years," the NSI said.

Meanwhile, the life expectancy of the urban population (75.8 years) was 3.0 years higher than that of the rural (72.8 years), the NSI added.