How many healthy life years can EU citizens expect?

In 2023, the number of healthy life years at birth in the EU was 63.1 years on average, 63.3 years for women and 62.8 years for men.

Life expectancy at birth for women in the EU was, on average, 5.3 years longer than that for men (84.0 years compared with 78.7 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 shorter lives free from activity limitations.

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Source dataset: hlth_hlye

At country level, there were only nine EU countries where men registered more healthy life years than women. 

The highest numbers of healthy life years for men were recorded in Malta (71.7 years), followed by Italy (68.5 years) and Sweden (67.2 years), while the lowest ones were found in Latvia (51.2 years), Estonia (56.5 years) and Slovakia (56.8 years).

Malta also recorded the highest number of healthy life years at birth in 2023 for women (71.1 years), ahead of Bulgaria (71.0 years) and Italy (69.6 years). By contrast, Latvia had the lowest number of healthy life years for women (54.3 years), followed by Denmark (55.4 years) and Finland (55.9 years).

For more information

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

Methodological notes

Healthy life years: the number of years that a person is expected to live without an activity limitation (disability).

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