Taiwanese people are living longer again as COVID's effects fade, good news overall, though men and rural areas still lag behind.

• Average life expectancy climbed to 81.3 years, up from 80.8 the year before.
• Deaths fell for the third year running as the pandemic's impact eased.
• Women now live to nearly 85 on average, back above their pre-COVID peak; men, at 78, have not caught up yet.
• Taipei leads the country at 84 years, while Taitung County trails at 76.5 — a gap of almost eight years between the capital and the rural east.
• Taiwan's average sits well above the global figure of 73.5 years, but still below its own 2020 high.

Outlook: Life expectancy should keep edging up as pandemic deaths recede, but the wide city-countryside gap is unlikely to close soon.