LIFE EXPECTANCY IN FRANCE. What are the latest figures, what differences with life expectancy in good health? While the government’s pension reform project including the announced postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 has raised many questions, we take stock of the latest available data.
The postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 is one of the key points of the government’s pension reform and clearly one of the most commented on points. This announcement made by the government during the presentation of the project on January 10, 2023 raised many questions, centered in particular on the state of health and the life expectancy of retirees in France. Here are some figures to see more clearly.
According to latest figures from INSEE for the year 2022, the life expectancy for a man in France is 79.3 years, and 85.2 years for a woman. These data have decreased by around 0.4 years compared to 2019, i.e. before the Covid-19 pandemic. With a legal retirement age of 62 like today, a man could therefore be retired for 17 years and 23 years for a woman. But beware, this somewhat simplistic estimate should be compared with studies by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES, dependent on the Ministry of Health) on the average time spent in retirement which provides much more accurate data (see below).
The DREES has published several reports on retirement in France, compiling numerous demographic data based in particular on INSEE surveys. One of them (read the DREES sheet entitled “The average retirement age and its evolution”) is used to calculate the length of retirement per generation. For this, a calculation is made: 60 + life expectancy at age 60 – average retirement age of the generation concerned (based on people living at the age of 66). Based on Insee’s 2016 demographic projections, the DREES arrived at a sort of “expectation of duration” in retirement. This reached 25.8 years (women and men combined) for the generation born in 1953 (the most recent to be studied) against 21.6 for that born in 1926.
Life expectancy does not take into account the real state of health of the French, that which allows for example to live at home, without heavy assistance. At the turn of the 2000s, another indicator was created by INSEE, that of life expectancy in good health. This indicator makes it possible to obtain an average of the number of years that a person can live “without incapacity hampering them in the gestures of daily life”, according to the INSEE definition. In 2016, it stood at 64.1 years for women and 62.7 years for men, a globally stable figure since 2005 but has since jumped to settle in 2020 at 65.9 for a woman and 64 .4 years for a man.
The healthy life expectancy data, however, came under fire as the debate swirled over raising the legal retirement age. Political parties but also researchers have rather put forward “disability-free life expectancy at age 65”, that is to say a data allowing to indicate the number of years where one can hope to be fit once they reach retirement age. The most recent DREES data dates from 2020 and indicates a projection of 12.1 years without disability for a 65-year-old woman and 10.6 years for a man, two figures slightly above the European average. Please note that these two indicators of life expectancy in good health and life expectancy in good health at age 65 also have their limits because they are based in particular on a declarative survey of a panel answering their state of health. DREES projections and reports also do not include socio-professional criteria or classification. However, the INSEE censuses clearly indicate a gap between the life expectancy of a manager and that of a worker: 6 to 7 years on average according to the latest indicators.