Japan overtook Hong Kong for expected lifespans of both men and women for the first time since 2011, recording 81.1 years for men and 87.1 for women in 2022.

Government data released earlier this month showed that Hong Kong’s standardised death rate, which is the number of deaths per 1,000 people, rose from 6.9 in 2021 to 8.4 in 2022 after being on a downward trend for three decades.

Gietel-Basten said the change was because of the deaths during the peak of the pandemic in 2022.

The city recorded 63,692 deaths that year, a 24 per cent increase from 51,354 in 2021.

With the world gradually returning to normality in 2023 and Covid-related deaths largely reduced, Gietel-Basten expected the city’s mortality rate to return to its previous downward trend.

Hong Kong has so far recorded more than 14,000 Covid-related deaths, with more than 90 per cent occurring during the fifth wave of Covid-19 infections in 2022. Most of those who died were people aged 65 or older.

The Census and Statistics Department, which released the data, said in its report that the mortality rates for a number of age groups of both sexes were higher in 2022 than 2021 “amid the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Will Covid-19’s death toll drop Hong Kong’s life expectancy?

Elderly people saw a more significant increase, with the rate among men aged at least 85 years old rising from 109 per 1,000 people in 2021 to 143.5. The rate for women in the same age group rose from 85.4 to 109.

Gietel-Basten cautioned against reading too much into the data by comparing life expectancies of different years, especially with the occurrence of an unusual event such as the pandemic.

“It’s not the case that in 2022, all of a sudden, people’s lives got shorter … it’s just the case that there were more deaths, primarily at older ages, which is going to skew the life expectancy,” he said.

“We shouldn’t overemphasise or misinterpret it to say everybody is going to live two years less,” he said.

Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, chair of population health at the University of Hong Kong, said the higher mortality rates among elderly people in 2022 contributed to the drop in life expectancy.

“If there wasn’t Covid-19, the life expectancy of Hongkongers would still be increasing,” he said.

From 1991 to 2021, the expected lifespan for Hong Kong men increased by eight years, from 75.2 to 83.2 years. Women had more than seven years added to their lifespan, rising from 80.7 to 87.9 years.

But Yip said instead of looking at life expectancy only, people should also pay attention to healthy life expectancy, meaning the number of years a person can expect to remain in good health, unhindered by disabling illness or injury.

Hong Kong is tops for longevity, but experts flag health problems ahead

He said healthy life expectancy was a more important measure of improvement in public health.

“It can better indicate our quality of life,” he said. “But healthy life expectancy in Hong Kong did not proportionately increase.”

Even as people lived longer in the city, he said, many might also suffer from illness and disability for a long time before death, adding to the burden on the healthcare system.

A study released by Chinese University last November showed that between 2007 and 2020, the lifespan of Hong Kong men rose by about 43 months while women were living about 25 months longer, but the healthy life expectancy increased by only 20 months for men and one month for women.