By reducing the average life expectancy at age 65 by 0.08 years – the equivalent of one month –, in the three-year period ending this year, the retirement age that will be applied in 2024 will be fixed at 66 years and three months, says the newspaper.

Experts contacted by the JE consider this scenario to be “likely” and “acceptable”. Miguel Coelho, university professor and former director of the Social Security Institute, comments: “There is a strong probability of a reduction in average life expectancy, since the [previous] three-year period was 2019, which was relatively more benevolent than 2022 in terms of mortality.”

“Average life expectancy will continue to decline. Since March 2022, we have had more deaths than in the same period last year”, agrees Filipe Ribeiro, demographer and professor at the University of Évora.