Life Expectancy of Roma People in Europe: Indirect Estimations for 17 Countries

Marc Luy, Vienna Institute of Demography
Paola Di Giulio, Vienna Institute of Demography, Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna)
Lina Lasar, Vienna Institute of Demography
Tianyu Shen, Australian National University
Tamara Vaz de Moraes Santos, Vienna Institute of Demography

According to the most widely cited and generally accepted data from the Council of Europe, life expectancy (LE) of Roma people (RP) in Europe is between 10 and 15 years lower than that of the general population. However, all existing reports are substantially limited in the comprehensiveness and quality of the available data. Consequently, it is not clear whether the disadvantage in the number of life years is actually that high. The aim of this paper is therefore to provide estimates derived by a different approach and for national subpopulations of RP for which no estimates exist so far. We use two Roma surveys from 2019-21 which were conducted by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights in 17 European countries and allow the estimation of LE on the basis of proportions of still living parents with the “Orphanhood Method”. The results confirm the large disadvantage of RP in LE at young adult ages. The differences in LE at age 30 between national populations and Roma vary from 4.3 years among men in Portugal to 13.4 years among women in Italy. By including also information on child mortality, the analyses will be extended to provide estimates of LE at birth.

Keywords: Mortality and Longevity, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination

See extended abstract.