Who can expect the most healthy life years?

In 2022, the number of healthy life years at birth in the EU was 62.6 years on average, 62.8 years for women and 62.4 years for men.

Life expectancy at birth for women in the EU was, on average, 5.4 years longer than that for men (83.3 years compared with 77.9 years). Healthy life years - free from activity limitations - represent 75% and 80% of the total life expectancy for women and men, respectively. Therefore, on average, men tend to spend a greater proportion of their somewhat shorter lives free from activity limitations.

Source dataset: hlth_hlye

Among the EU countries, Malta recorded the highest number of healthy life years at birth in 2022 for women (70.3 years), ahead of Bulgaria (68.9 years) and Slovenia (68.5 years). 

In contrast, Denmark had the lowest number of healthy life years for women (54.6 years), followed by Latvia (55.4 years) and the Netherlands (56.3 years).

The highest number of healthy life years for men was also recorded in Malta (70.1), followed by Sweden (67.5) and Italy (67.1), while the lowest ones were found in Latvia (53.0 years), Slovakia (56.6 years) and Denmark (57.1 years).

For more information

• Statistics Explained article on healthy life years
• Thematic section on health statistics
• Database on health statistics

Methodological notes

• Healthy life years: the number of years that a person is expected to live without an activity limitation (disability)
• France, Malta and Portugal: data are provisional.
• Romania: data are estimated.
• Germany: data with low reliability.

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