(Brussels) Sweden is the European country in which professionally active life lasts the longest: on average 41,2 years. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Italy is the one with the shortest working life: 30.7 years. This has been found by an Eurostat survey published today, which says that, in the EU, working life lasts 35.4 years on average and has been increasing since 2005. Actually, in the last decade, it has got two years longer across the EU. Among women, from 2005 to 2015, it has increased from 30.2 years to 32.8 years; among men, from 36.7 years to today’s 37.9 years. There are clear differences between Northern Europe, where people work longer, and Southern and Eastern Europe. Active professional life lasts the longest, as we said, in Sweden, with the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany following hot on its heels: all countries in which people work for over 38 years. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium and Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania: all countries in which people work for just 33 years or less.