Health in the EU27 in 2010 At the age of 65, both women and men are expected to live a further 9 years in a healthy condition

STAT/12/60

19 April 2012

Health in the EU27 in 2010
At the age of 65, both women and men are expected to live a further 9 years in a healthy condition

Healthy life years measure the number of years that a person can expect to live in a healthy condition1. When considering the population aged 65 years, life expectancy is provisionally estimated at 21.0 years for women and 17.4 years for men in the EU27 in 2010. As regards healthy life years, women at the age of 65 in the EU27 in 2010 were expected to live a further 8.8 years in a healthy condition, and men 8.7 years.

It is interesting to note that the Member States where the population has the highest life expectancy at the age of 65 are not necessarily the same as those with the most healthy life years at 65. Another interesting aspect of these indicators is the difference between women and men. In all Member States, women have a longer life expectancy at 65 than men, while for healthy life years at the age of 65, men have a higher number of years than women in ten Member States.

This information2 is published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union in connection with the first meeting of the European Joint Action on Healthy Life Years3 organised within the framework of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.

Longest life expectancy at the age of 65 in France and Spain for both women and men

In 2010, the longest life expectancy at 65 for women was observed in France (23.4 years), Spain (22.7 years) and Italy (22.1 years in 2009), and for men in France (18.9 years), Spain (18.6 years) and Greece (18.5 years). The shortest life expectancy at 65 for women was recorded in Bulgaria (17.0 years), Romania (17.2 years in 2009) and Slovakia (18.0 years), and for men in Latvia (13.3 years), Lithuania (13.5 years) and Bulgaria (13.6 years).

Most healthy life years at the age of 65 in Sweden for both women and men

In 2010, the highest number of healthy life years at 65 for women was recorded in Sweden (15.5 years), Denmark (12.8 years), Luxembourg (12.4 years), Malta (11.9 years) and the United Kingdom (11.8 years), and for men in Sweden (14.1 years), Malta (12.0 years), Denmark (11.8 years), Ireland (11.1 years) and the United Kingdom (10.8 years). The lowest number of healthy life years for both women and men was observed in Slovakia (2.8 years for women and 3.3 years for men), followed by Romania (5.0 years) and Estonia (5.5 years) for women, and Latvia (4.9 years) and Estonia (5.3 years) for men.

Healthy life years and life expectancy at 65, 2010

* Estimated

** Estimates for healthy life years and 2009 data for life expectancy

A healthy condition is defined by the absence of limitations in functioning/disability, measured by a self-perceived question asking for the extent of any limitations in activities people usually do caused by a health problem (for at least the past six months). The indicator of healthy life years measures the number of years that a person of a specific age is expected to live without any severe or moderate health problems, which means that the respondent can maintain usual activities. It should be noted that due to different ways of phrasing the question at national level, data might not be fully comparable.

For more information, see the Statistics Explained article on the Eurostat web site.

For more information: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=88&eventsId=459&furtherEvents=yes

Eurostat News Releases on the internet: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat