As far as mortality is concerned, the relevant data published by ELSTAT  showed that the number of deaths increased from 108,316 in 2009 to 111,794 in 2013. It is notable that the 116,670 deaths that occurred in 2012 was the largest recorded number since 1949  whilst 2,000 of them (almost one third of the additional number of deaths) could be linked to austerity. However, it should be noted that the total number of dead and injured in road accidents has followed a continuously downward trend (20,097 in 2009 vs 16,054 in 2013) . The life expectancy in the same period continued an upward trend which had been recorded in the pre-crisis years. Specifically, according to ELSTAT , the relevant index increased from 77.7 years in 2009 to 78.3 years in 2013 for men and from 82.8 to 83.4 years for women, amounting to average annual increments of 0.27 and 0.20 years respectively.