The COVID-19 pandemic and life expectancy among older adults in Asian countries

ABSTRACT Millions of lives in Asia were lost in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, causing a reduction of 1.66 years in life expectancy at birth (e0 ) in 2019–2021 and a reduction of 1.41 years in life expectancy at age 60 (e60 ). Using the World Population Prospects 2022, we decomposed mortality changes at older ages (ages 60+) that contributed to Asia’s reduction in e0 and e60 . Overall, changes in mortality at older ages contributed to more than 70 per cent of reduction in e0 for all its subregions, except Eastern Asia (<37 per cent), and changes in mortality at oldest-old ages (80+) led to a reduction in e60 by 25 per cent. The sex difference in reduction of e60 varied across Asian countries, despite a similar pattern across subregions. These findings helped us understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on human mortality and the large variations across subregions and countries, which could have important policy implications.