Cent Eur J Public Health 2004, 12(2):113-114

Taxation and Life Expectancy in Western Europe

Bagger J.P.

Imperial College and Cardiothoracic Directorate, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK,

With the exception of Denmark, life expectancy in Western Europe has shown a significant increase over the last decades. During that period of time overall taxation has increased in most of the countries, especially in Denmark. We, therefore, examined whether taxation could influence life expectancy in Western Europe. We used information on the sum of income tax and employees' social contribution in percentage of gross wage earnings from the OECD database and data on disability adjusted life expectancy at birth from the World Health Organization database. We arbitrarily only included countries with populations in excess of 4 millions and thereby excluded smaller countries where tax exemption is part of the national monetary policy. We found that disability adjusted life expectancy at birth was inversely correlated to the total tax burden in Western Europe. We speculate whether a threshold exists where high taxes exert a negative influence on life expectancy despite increased welfare spending. The study suggests that tax burden should be considered among the multiple factors influencing life expectancy.

Keywords: life expectancy, taxation, Western Europe

Received: September 16, 2003; Revised: February 10, 2004; Accepted: February 10, 2004; Published: June 1, 2004  Show citation