A new large-scale study, published in Nature Communications, analyzed mortality and life expectancy data for nearly 400 million people across 450 regions in 13 Western European countries between 1992 and 2019.

The goal was to determine whether the biological or social limits of average human lifespan have already been reached.

The main finding: the human lifespan limit has not yet been reached, and in some regions, life expectancy continues to rise steadily.

In so-called “champion” regions—such as northern Italy, Switzerland, and certain provinces of Spain—the average life expectancy at birth increases by approximately 2.5 months per year for men and around 1.5 months per year for women, a rate comparable to previous decades.

Researchers found no signs that this growth is approaching a “glass ceiling.”

However, this positive trend is not uniform. In some regions—particularly eastern Germany, Wallonia in Belgium, and parts of the United Kingdom—the increase in life expectancy has slowed or nearly stalled since the mid-2000s.

This slowdown is mainly linked to rising mortality in the 55–74 age group, where the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease, harmful lifestyle habits, and other factors is significantly higher.