At least 63 years of healthy life in the EU; Italy tops the ranking

Brussels –Just over 63 years to live in good health, before being confronted with physical problems that may produce limitations to one’s daily life. These are the expectations from the moment of birth for men and women in the European Union, according to data published by Eurostat and referring to 2023. The European Statistical Office analyses the healthy life years, defined as the period during which a person is not just well, but in genuinely good health. The result indicates that in the EU, on average, this period lasts 63.1 years, with a difference by gender: 63.3 years for women and 62.8 years for men.

 Considering
life expectancy at birth, 84 years for women and 78 years and 9 months for men, healthy life years account for 75 percent and 80 percent of the total life expectancy for women and men, respectively. In short, “ on average, men tend to spend a greater proportion of their shorter lives free from activity limitations,” Eurostat said.

At the Member State level, the highest number of healthy years for men was recorded in Malta (71.7 years), followed by Italy (68.5 years) and Sweden (67.2 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)