It is worth noting that the United States of America does not feature in the list in the quote above. This map and the next show the life expectancy at birth for females and males by region. The northeast Spanish region Comunidad Foral de Navarra has the highest female life expectancy at birth (86 years), followed by the French regions Rhône-Alpes (85.9),

Poitou-Charentes (85.8) and Île de France (85.8), and the Italian region Marche (85.7). On the other hand, the Bulgarian region Yugoiztochen has the lowest female life expectancy at birth (75.8). Other regions at the bottom end of the range include Bulgaria’s Severozapaden (76.1) and Severoiztochen (76.3), and Romanian regions Nord-Vest (76.1) and Vest (76.3).

Women appear to live longer in southern Europe than women in the north. However, this pattern will be influenced by the migration of many elderly people across international borders and towards the sunshine of the south.

The highest male life expectancy at birth is found in the Italian regions Marche (80.1) and Provincia Autonoma Bolzano/Bozen (79.8), followed by the UK regions Dorset and Somerset (79.7) and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (79.7), and Italy’s Umbria (79.6) and Toscana (79.6). The lowest life expectancy values are observed in the Baltic countries (mapped here as single NUTS 2 regions) Lithuania (64.8), Latvia (65.8) and Estonia (67.2), and also in the Hungarian regions

Észak-Magyarország (67.4) and Észak-Alföld (68.4). Men appear to live longer in Western Europe than those in the East. Again migration since birth clearly plays a part – not just the migration of men who tend to do better in life further West, but also possibly the much higher migration rates of young women from the East, leaving more men behind.

The health of men without female partners tends to be worse (but the reverse does not, in general, apply).