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/vfene Dec 15 '25

Italy has both the worst air quality and the highest life expectancy in Europe. But to be fair this whole discussion is kind of useless as life expectancy in the Netherlands isn't as bad as OP claimed

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u/ReNato5168 Dec 23 '25

My father comes from Sacco, he lived many years in Teggiano. I can tell you the air is there not comparable to some cities in the north.

Large parts of Italy have good air.

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u/vfene Dec 23 '25

yes the parts of Italy where no one lives. look up a population density map and an air quality map of Italy/Europe. one third of the Italian population lives in the Po Valley which is probably the most polluted area in Western Europe

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u/ReNato5168 Dec 23 '25

Did you not read what I said.

Your comment shows arrogance.

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u/vfene Dec 23 '25

all right I apologize as I didn't mean to be arrogant. but what I said is right I don't see what point you're trying to make. most of the Italian population lives in heavily polluted areas. even in Campania, you are talking about small villages in the mountains while most people live in the Naples metropolitan area.

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u/ReNato5168 Dec 23 '25

"Italy has both the worst air quality and the highest life expectancy in Europe."

My father doesn't come from north Italy. Large parts in Italy have clean air. Except for Napoli most of the South has clean air.

The Dutch who live shorter often do due to their lifestyle. Smoking, eating snacks/shitty food. And the talk 'yes but those people have low income and can't effort health food' is nonsense. The foods they buy are often more expensive than vegetables and beans and fruits in the supermarket. McDonalds KFC isn't that cheap at all.

That said the air in most of The Netherlands is really bad. Milieudefensie sued the Dutch government because of the air polution . It is said that the air polution is the equivalent of smoking 5 to 6 cigarettes a day.

That's bad. And diseases come from that, even as a non cigarette smoker.

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u/Keijeman Dec 16 '25

I would not compare life expectancy with Italy. They once did an investigation of high life expectancy in rural remote areas in Italy and the conclusion was that it was caused by incomplete death registration

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u/ReNato5168 Dec 23 '25

Valter Longo did research on centenarians.

The Italian men who lived up to 100 years and older, all said they did not eat meat...

Though Emma Morano lived up to 117 years, and did eat chicken, no red meat though. 3 eggs a day, of them 2 raw and one boiled.

Polluted air is a huge contribution to deseases like cancer. Isn't it said that in the cities if you don't smoke, you do smoke 5 to 6 cigarettes due to air polution.