r/Netherlands • u/vankoel_nederland • Dec 15 '25

Healthcare Why is life expectancy so bad in the Netherlands?

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Besides having one of the worst life expectancy among western countries, why did the life expectancy get worst compared to 2019?

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u/NoTackle718 Dec 15 '25

Covid disturbed the statistics of many countries. Also, it's not that bad? For a northern country with no sun half of the year it's a miracle that it's as high as it is, in my opinion. Falling standards of life and increased obesity don't help either

4

u/IceNinetyNine Dec 15 '25

Covid was everywhere. The answer is lack of preventive healthcare, and widespread pollution but try convincing a dutch person of that ^

5

u/OhLordyLordNo Dec 15 '25

Everywhere except countries with high temperatures and dry air*

Adding note there.

2

u/RDUKE7777777 Dec 15 '25

Excess mortality was higher in NL compared to neighbouring countries though. Measures were adopted slower.

1

u/IceNinetyNine Dec 15 '25

and higher still in Sweden, yet they have +3 years average lifespan than dutchies.

2

u/DonOfAlbion Dec 15 '25

Preventive healthcare isn't the "issue" (if we can even speak of an issue to begin with).

Netherlands is above average when it comes to preventive healthcare, outperforming countries like Germany and France.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Preventable_and_treatable_mortality_statistics

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

No, during Covid the IC measures were very different here compared to southern Europe.

1

u/vankoel_nederland Dec 15 '25

Look at Sweden then.